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Information and Communications
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Prescription: BA600 (BA200) Business Analysis

Aim of Module	To give students an understanding of business organisations, their data requirements, and the relationship between the two, specifically dealing with the business as a system and the MIS as a model of that system.
Credits	7
Student Learning hours	70
Prescription Expiry Date	Nov 2005

Level and Assessment Schedule
Topics	Highest Skill Level	Suggested Assessment Percentage

1 Systems Theory	C	25
3 System Development Cycle	P	35

		100

LEARNING OUTCOMES The Student Will

A	1	Demonstrate an understanding of the systemic relationship between a business and its data.



A	2	Perform simple analyses of business structures and derive data models of those structures.



A	3	Demonstrate an understanding of the differences between Electronic Data Processing (EDP), Management Information Systems (MIS) and Decision Support Systems (DSS).

CONTENT

1	Systems Theory


	1.1	General Systems Theory

		-Open systems relying on external inputs, contributing to environment

		-Closed systems, balanced inputs and outputs



	1.2	Systems Model of the Firm

		-The firm as an energetic input-output system

		-Networks of resource flows and industrial dynamics

		-Management and organisation as systems



	1.3	Models of Systems



	1.4	Types of Models

		-Physical

		-Narrative

		-Graphical

		-Mathematical



	1.5	Modelling Physical Systems

		-Material Flows

		-Personnel Flow

		-Mechanism Flows

		-Financial Flows

3	System Development Cycle


	3.1	Definition of the terms EDP, MIS and DSS and their relationships to each other.



	3.2	Levels at which each is appropriate



	3.3	Relationship of each to a particular function level within the firm.



	3.4	The systems development cycle as a form of the systems approach to business information problem solving.


Note
ASSESSMENT



>	Simple project work based on case studies.