Course Contents
Course Code: IS 511
Course Title: Distributed Systems Management
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
Rationale for Distributed Systems Management (DSM), Uses and users of distributed systems, business aspects of DSM. DSM concepts, Management functions and management services, Security and distributed systems, Supporting services, Installation, operation and maintenance. Standards for DSM, Current practice and future directions.
Course Code: IS 525
Course Title: Object-Oriented Systems Development
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
Definitions of Class and Object, Key characteristics of Object-Oriented (OO) method. Object-Oriented project life cycle, Mixing of methodologies in an OO project. Managing OO projects, OO software reuse, Critical success factors for OO software projects. OO analysis, OO design, CASE for OO .
Course Code: IS 531
Course Title: Document Storage and Retrieval Systems
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
Information Systems types-An overview: Information Retrieval Systems, DBMS, MIS, Decision Support Systems, Dialog Systems. Fundamentals of Retrieval Systems: Adjacency and term frequency features, Text analysis and automatic indexing, Thesaurus rules and construction, Retrieval evaluation. Document storage technology and techniques. Emerging technology: Hypertext systems, Multimedia and hypermedia systems, Hardware requirements.
Course Code: IS 533
Course Title: Advanced Topics in Databases
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
Database Systems: Semantic data modeling, Object-oriented databases, Query optimization, Semantic Integrity. Distributed Databases (DDB), Data fragmentation and distributed transparency, Distributed query processing, Concurrence control methods: Serializability in a DDB and the two-phase locking method, Concurrence control based on timestamps, The two-phase COMMIT protocol. Recovery management.
Course Code: IS 537
Course Title: Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Based Systems
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) problem-solving concepts, Knowledge-based systems (KBS) defined, KBS domain of applications. Problem formulation and state space search. Knowledge representation: Rules, semantic nets, and frames. Knowledge acquisition techniques. Deduction with formal logic. Rule-based systems. Inexact reasoning. Expert systems (ES) Development. Building a business ES: A case study.
Course Code: IS 540
Course Title: Software Project Management and Quality Assurance
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
Preparing for project: Project financial analysis and risk evaluation, Procurement models, Proposal
strategies, technical, management and cost proposal. Project planning. Managing the project design
effort and team: Preparing the system design, functional, and program specification; Technical quality assurance, Managing the project’s implementation and acceptance phases. Post-completion analysis. Advanced project management techniques. Software quality assurance and control, Software metrics.
Course Code: BUS 595
Course Title: Information Systems Strategic Planning
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
The evolving role of Information Systems (IS) and Information Technology (IT) in organizations. An
overview of business strategy concepts, Strategic IS planning, IS strategic analysis, Determining the
business IS strategy. Strategic management of IS/IT: Organization, resources, and administration.
Managing the application portfolio, Application management: Investment, priority setting, development and servicing approaches.
Course Code: BUS 592
Course Title: Business Process Reengineering and Restructuring
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
What is business process reengineering, Guidelines, Planning phase, Redesign phase, Transition phase, Implementation phase. Total quality management (TQM) techniques, How TQM and Reengineering differ. Desktop computing and LANs, How reengineering improves an organization’s efficiency. The ISO 9000 and TQM, Achieving TQM and the ISO 9000 directives.
Course Code: IS 550
Course Title: Information and Requirements Engineering
Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisite: None
Course Outline:
Foundations of Information Engineering; Information Planning Components ; Requirements Engineering; Meta-modeling and Modeling; Method Engineering; Method Engineering Support.
Course Code: IS 555
Course Title: Advanced Computer Networking
Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisite: None
Course Outline:
Overview of Computer Networking and the Internet; Link Layer and Local Area Networks; Network Layer and Routing; Transport Layer Protocols ; Application Layer Protocols; Multimedia Networking, Security in Computer Networks.
Course Code: IS 561
Course Title: Operations Research / Quantitative Methods in Business
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
Quantitative analysis and the decision making process, Principles of modeling, Data gathering and
preparation, Model solution. Linear Programming models. Project Scheduling: PERT- CPM.
Assignment and Transportation models. Game theory and management games.
Course Code: IS 562
Course Title: Modeling and Simulation in Decision Making
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
Principles of simulation: Model building, Handling time in models, Model attributes and parameters.
Simulation languages and systems. Business application: Finance, Production, Inventory. Simulation of human decision-making, AI and simulation. Corporate simulation models and case studies.
Course Code: BUS 596
Course Title: Decision Making Theory
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
The course focuses on the process of making and implementing management decisions. It develops the basic elements involved in decision making and integrate them in a systematic theory of decision making under uncertainty. The course introduces the student to the problem of measurement uncertainty, decision programming, expected values and utility criteria, subjective probability assessment, simulation, value of information and risk taking.
Course Code: IS 591
Course Title: Selected Topics in Information Systems
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
Information Systems and Technology are evolving fast. This course intends to introduce special topics of current interest of IS/IT. Topics covered in this course will be determined by the department and may be conducted by more than one instructor.
Course Code: IS 598
Course Title: Research Seminar
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
The student is asked to survey and present the theoritical and technical aspects of some topics to be agreed upon with the tutor. An oral presentation and a written report are required.
Course Code: IS 599
Course Title: Project
Credit Hours: 3
Course Outline:
The aim of this project is to bridge the gap between the academic study and training needed by industry and businesses. Students are initiated to work under close faculty supervision, on real-world problems of sufficient magnitude. Project implementation and documentation are main concerns. The final report should be comprehensive, well written and organized to reflect an effective approach to carry out the work involved