Core module: Professional issues in Information Systems Practice (Version 2)

Professional Institutions

• The role of professional institutions and their characteristics: established by Royal Charter, self-governing, controlling entry to the profession and maintaining discipline; reservation of title and reservation of function. Some familiarity with the best-known professional institutions (e.g. those governing the law, medicine and accounting) will be expected.
• The development and structure of the engineering profession; the roles of the Engineering Council and the professional engineering institutions. Regulation of the engineering profession outside the UK.
• The British Computer Society and its membership structure; branches and specialist groups.

Organisations and their Structure

• Limited companies and the roles of directors and members; the advantages of limited company status for commercial organisations. Other legal forms of organisation.
• The concept of delegation and specialisation. Management structures: structure by function, by product, by market sector, and by region.

Finance

• The financial structure of companies. The requirements for financial disclosure imposed by statute and by stock exchanges. Capital items and depreciation. The balance sheet, the profit and loss account, and cash flow statement.

Management Accouting

• Costing: direct and indirect costs; fixed and variable costs; overheads, corporate and divisional. Treatment of overheads in costing. Costing of labour. Costing (as opposed to estimating) of IT projects. The effect of cost and other factors on the pricing of software.
• Cash flow and its importance; cash flow forecasts, the need for working capital.
• Discounted cash flow analysis and its use in the assessment of capital projects.
• Simple budgeting.

Legal Obligations

• Data Protection Acts 1984 and 1998. Computer Misuse Act 1990. Relevant provisions of the Consumer Protection Act 1987, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

Intellectual Property

• The concept of intellectual property; software, documentation and designs as intellectual property. The mechanisms available to protect intellectual property. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The EC directive on the Legal Protection of Computer Programs, 91/250.

The Internet

• The application of the law relating to issues such as privacy, defamation, and intellectual property rights to the Internet.

Professional Codes of Conduct and their Limitations

• Professional Codes of Conduct, their strengths and weaknesses. The BCS Code of Conduct and its application in practice.

Human Resources Management

• The statutory framework of employment. Contracts of employment. Legal issues arising from outsourcing.
• The BCS industry structure model; continuing professional development.
• Recruitment and selection. Equal opportunities practices. Human resources planning.
• The effect of information systems on jobs. Job design: specialisation, rotation, enlargement and enrichment. Job evaluation.
• Appraisal and Management by Objectives. Continuing professional development.
• Remuneration schemes, planning and control.

A Synopsis of the Microsoft Car

At a recent computer expo (Comdex), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that get 100 miles to the gallon." Recently, General Motors addresses this comment by releasing this statement, "yes, but would you want your car to crash twice a day?" Below is a synopsis of the Microsoft Car: Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on. Occasionally, executing a maneuver would cause your car to stop and fail, and you would have to re-install the engine. for some strange reason, you would accept this too. You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT". But then you would have to buy more seats. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times faster, twice as easy to drive, but would only run on 5% of the roads. The Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades for their cars, which would make their cars run much slower. The oil, gas and alternator lights would be replaced with single "general car fault" lights. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off. If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.

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If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.
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Last updated 13'th January 2005
Copyright © 2003-2005 by Sanjaya Ratnaweera
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