BSc (ISM) Programme

Curriculum Expansions & Improvements

Expanded Second Major Options

Expanded list of 2nd major options across SMU - with more guidance on how to plan for second majors. more

Within the SIS 2nd Major in Advanced Technology & Applications, new tracks in data management & business intelligence, software systems & solutions and information security.
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Beyond Information Systems - Fly to your destination of choice!

Expanded Selection of IS Depth Electives and Specialisation Tracks

There are now more depth electives for the BSc (ISM) programme.
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Making IS Software Foundations More Attuned to the Needs of Students with No Prior IT background

During term 1 of 2006/2007, SIS conducted a revamped first semester course, IS Software Foundations (IS 200) for 174 SMU students. The objective of this course is to provide an overview of software technology and how software is used to create business solutions. For most students taking this course, it is their first systematic exposure to working with software tools, and the challenge is to introduce our students to software in a way that is highly motivating, interesting and even fun! This course has been successful in engaging students to understanding the fundamentals of programming, simple solution design and internet architecture, and how these capabilities are used to create practical business solutions.

To make the course engaging and “interactive”, we include a segment that makes use of the ALICE authoring environment which enables students to quickly create animated stories. Working in ALICE, students can instantly see the logic of their story in the form of moving animations. The ALICE environment has proven to be a very effective way of getting introductory students with no prior IT or software background to understand how to create logical programmes that do what you want them to do.

To use the ALICE in more interesting and innovative ways, SIS is sponsoring the IS Software Foundation teaching team to attend the ALICE Summer Institute Workshop to be held at Carnegie Mellon University in July 2007.

Aside from using innovative tools like ALICE, we have found that the teaching materials for IS Software Foundations are more effective if they use relevant business oriented examples, and if concepts and examples are visualized in interesting ways. Since we could not find a textbook with the right combination of examples, visual images and words, we are writing our own text. The book will include visual artefacts (graphic figures, photos, drawings, etc) and will facilitate an active and participative learning style using exercise, repetition, examples, analogies, etc. The book will also supplement the course with additional anecdotes, references and exercises. Students taking IS Software Foundations in August get to be the “test users” of this new text book, and their feedback will help us to further improve the text.

Expanded Industry Partnerships to Provide Hands-On Exposure to Leading Business Solutions

HP Software & Ernst and Young

Mercury Interactive now part of HP Software and Ernst and Young were active industry partners for the IS408 IT Governance and IT Portfolio Management course. Ernst and Young provided experienced managers for talks on IT Audit, COBIT and SOX compliance while HP Software gave students access to their IT Portfolio Management Software. HP Software additionally offered a prize of 1000 dollars which was shared by the top three teams in the IT Governance exercise. SIS sincerely thanks Ernst and Young and HP Software for their support. Some of the students got jobs and internships related to IT governance as a result of attending this course. We hope more students will derive similar benefits by attending future offerings of this course. You can learn more about IT Audit, COBIT and the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) regulations at the web site of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA).

HP/Mercury Collaboration

SIS & Mercury (now HP) were involved in a joint 2-year collaboration since 2005 which enabled SIS to utilize Mercury's leading load testing tool (Loadrunner Performance Center) in the Architectural Analysis core module of the BSc (ISM) curriculum.  Using Loadrunner in the SIS curriculum exposed students to a leading performance verification tool widely used in the IT industry, and the partnership with Mercury tool has been good.

 Putting the tool in the Architectural curriculum not only enables the students to understand how performance measuring is done in the industry but also gives them direct experience with the implications of their design decisions.  In our effort to provide students with deeper skills in industry relevant technologies we began looking for ways to expand use of the tool.  SIS and HP are currently negotiating for a renewal of the academic licensing agreement to extend usage of Loadrunner to the final year projects as well.  This will give students experience using Loadrunner outside the classroom on larger, more realistic projects and still within the academic learning environment.

SMU, SAP Asia and HP Partnered to Teach Undergraduates the Next Generation of ERP Concepts

SIS is collaborating with SAP and HP to deliver the first of its kind course in the world on the next generation of ERP concepts based on enterprise Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles. This course will provide SIS students with the knowledge and skills in these emerging areas to better compete in the market. The course will focus on understanding complex business processes and include interactive discussion sessions and hands-on labs using SAP's Enterprise Service Discovery System.

The Enterprise Service Discovery System is a complete, fully documented system with standard SAP software components for developing and delivering service-based applications, including all the interfaces, functionality, data, and guidance necessary to run a complete, end-to-end business scenario.

SIS plans to deliver this course over the next three years starting in the Academic Year 2007-2008.

Eric MacDonald President South East Asia SAP

"SAP has recognised SMU's distinction in nurturing students that possess innovation, leadership and skills relevant to the industry, and is proud to be a partner to co-build the foundation of a world-class research university. We are committed to sharing SAP's industry experience and technology to develop SMU's students to their fullest potential. For instance, SMU students will learn and develop innovative new business solutions through SAP's Enterprise Service Discovery System, based on leading edge enterprise SOA principles."

“HP shares SMU's clear vision to train the next generation of leaders who must understand the latest trends and developments in enterprise IT, but also drive innovation, manage change and deliver on business outcomes. We are glad for this opportunity to share our expertise and know-how with SMU's students in the exciting and varied curricula that will introduce them to new paradigms and challenges in business IT.  These include understanding and applying the concept of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), and getting hands-on training in using Enterprise Service Discovery System to develop next-generation IT solutions for business.”
YEO Siang Tiong, Strategic Business Development Manager, Hewlett-Packard Singapore

SMU is first local university to partner Novell to train students on Linux

Apr 2007 - The School of Information Systems (SIS) and Novell Singapore have entered into a strategic training partnership under the Novell Academic Training Partner (NATP) programme.

SMU is the first university in Singapore to be awarded training partnership status by Novell. Under the NATP, Novell will facilitate the transfer of expertise on SUSE Linux technologies to SIS staff and students, provide software licenses for instructional use, partner support as well as instructor training. SMU students will also be offered discounts for Novell Certified Linux Professional (NCLP) certification.

To date, four instructors from SIS have already undergone intensive training on SUSE Linux technologies and they will in turn, conduct short courses for SMU students using official Novell courseware. Under the partnership, SIS will offer at least 2 Novell courses per year. So far, a pilot batch of 15 SIS undergraduates has already undergone the first part of a 3-part course leading to the NCLP certification. Plans are in place for the other courses to run later this year with the objective to equip as many SMU students with Linux competency as possible.

Maarten KOSTER President Novell Asia Pacific

"We are seeing widespread adoption of Linux in the region and globally. Our recent launch of SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 has seen a lot of large corporations jumping on the SUSE Linux bandwagon, with Sumitomo Electric being the latest. Novell wants to enable Singaporeans by training students who will be equipped to handle an increasingly Open Source IT environment when they enter the workforce. This strategic training partnership with SMU is an important step in terms of Linux enablement of our future workforce."

SIS/Oracle Tie-up to Teach Undergraduates Business Processes using Oracle
E-Business Suite

SMU becomes the first university in Asia to enroll in Oracle Academy 's innovative shared software offering that gives students the opportunity to learn about complex enterprise business applications and processes utilizing the Oracle E-Business suite.

This collaboration allows SIS students to log in to an Oracle e-Business suite application hosted in the US , and play the roles of customer, warehouse department and accounts department to understand how orders are entered, configured, booked, received, invoiced and paid. Some of the relevant business processes covered in the curriculum include lead-to-forecast, procure-to-pay, order-to-payment, click-to-resolution and bank reconciliation.

Frank KOO Managing Director Oracle Singapore

“In this programme, students can leverage on Oracle's innovative approach to expose undergraduates to enterprise applications and processes that mirror real-world business environments”, said Frank Koo, Managing Director of Oracle Singapore. "Seeing the cross-functional business processes in action, and seeing the points of integration, will help them to envision day-to-day activities within major organizations."

Partnership with INFOSYS Campus Connect

SIS is the first School in Singapore to be part of the INFOSYS Campus Connect programme. This programme is an industry-academia relationship program designed and practiced by INFOSYS to enhance the quality and quantity of IT workforce through series of activities in the college campuses with active involvement of college management, faculty and students. Through this collaboration, SIS will leverage INFOSYS knowledge base and experience to provide industry relevant education to SIS students. Students joining SIS will be able to take the INFOSYS Foundation Programme Certification. SIS is also working with INFOSYS to develop a course on the next generation "Web Solution Architecture". Learn more about INFOSYS and its Campus Connect programme here.

SMU-SIS & Infosys Technologies Authored a Textbook that is Specially Tailored for Information System Students

SIS Associate Professor Venky SHANKARARAMAN, Instructor TAN Kar Way and three IT Professionals from Infosys Technologies published a Textbook titled “Business Process Engineering Methodology” (BPEM) with Prentice Hall, Pearson in Sep 2006. The book was designed to adopt the active learning style practiced at SMU. It is used as the text book for the Process Modelling and Solution Blueprinting (PMSB) course that aims to provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills to ensure that they can methodically translate business objectives into effective IT solutions. 

The BPEM book presents a methodical approach that brings in formalism and repeatability into the process of translating business requirements into clear IT solutions through a collection of models, techniques and tools. The methodology is based on the proprietary InFlux™ methodology developed by Infosys Technologies Ltd., and adapted to suit the audience of this book, namely, IT professionals and undergraduate students. To date, nearly 300 students have benefited from the use of the textbook during their PMSB course. The team of authors are currently working on the second version of the book with would cover additional topics in Solution Blueprinting.  The second version of the book is expected to be published in Aug 2007.

SMU & ILOG (S) Pte Ltd Partnered to Teach Undergraduates Business Rules Management

Since Aug 2006, The School of Information Systems (SIS) has introduced ILOG Business Rules Management System (BRMS) into its core curriculum.

Through the course Process Modeling and Solution Blueprinting, SIS students learnt how a BRMS can be leveraged to bridge the gap between business and IT by having control over the flow of logic and ability to manage business policies and rules as the business changes. To date, near to 300 students has been introduced the concept of BRMS.

This summer 2007, SIS will open an intensive and focused BRMS course for undergraduates who wish to further explore the technology in Business Rules Management in depth. Through this course, students will learn about business rules concepts, experience rule discovery methodology, set up and deploy business rules for a fictitious company.

FOO Jong Tong General Manager, Asia Pacific ILOG Singapore

"The market today has become an incredibly competitive battlefield and businesses succeed or perish at shorter time cycles. Who succeeds, and who fails, only pivots on having the right people at the helm, and having the right infrastructure in place to empower the people to get the things done effectively and progressively ahead of the competition. ILOG, being a leader in both business rules and optimization solutions, is proud to be an enabler to SMU's business and technology programs, which will empower future business and technology leaders who emerge from SMU's tertiary programs, to build real-time, competitive, and progressive businesses."
FOO Jong Tong, General Manager, Asia Pacific, ILOG Singapore

Standard Chartered iLab @ SMU

Standard Chartered Bank partners with SMU to establish innovation lab (iLab). The Standard Chartered iLab @ SMU is sited at the School of Information Systems. Read press release.
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Standard Chartered Bank's iLab @ SMU announced the list of award recipients on 16 February 2007. Awards for Innovation Projects were granted to three teams for their excellent final year projects, with each team receiving $12,000. Also, five ”Young Star” awards were granted to students for their performance in 2006 and 2007. The Young Stars have the invaluable opportunity to work with the bank on a series of innovation-related projects.
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Adam SPENCER Manager Standard Chartered iLab@SMU

“Rise to the challenge of converting new and exciting ideas into reality.  We are looking for students who want to go that extra mile and reap the rewards.”

KOH Lian Chee Program Manager Standard Chartered iLab@SMU & Instructor, SMU SIS

"It's a place where students are encouraged to create innovations that make a difference in real world business applications!"