Information Systems - Master's Programme

The course examines how ICT can be used as a tool that enables evaluation and innovation in how firms communicate and optimize environmental performance. The course further discusses sustainability from different IS perspectives where the focus is on digitalization of our society weather that be Smart Cities, Smart grids or just the general use and disposal of technical products.

The end result of the course should be an increased understanding of IS and ICT in a sustainability context that companies and individuals need to relate to. After completion of course objectives, the student will have the ability to discuss and evaluate different sustainability initiatives as well as argue for how companies can increase IT effectiveness and efficiency and thereby lower their carbon footprint, as well as have an ability to discuss IT’s role in any formal sustainability programme.

Course code: INFN25 | Download syllabus

The course aims to give an introduction and overview of Business Intelligence (BI), which encompasses a broad category of technologies, applications, and processes for gathering, storing, accessing, and analyzing data. This facilitates better decision-making for various users within the organization, ultimately enhancing organizational performance. The course's main goal is to strike a balance between theory and practice by considering the demands of the current employment requirements in ICT and business trends.

The course explores BI at both micro and macro levels. At the micro level, the development of BI applications is covered by defining a business problem and identifying the necessary data to answer the identified problem.

At the macro level, the course explores theoretical advancements of BI from the standpoint of information systems and overarching effects of BI across the entire organization. Issues related to data integration, data modelling, data quality, meta-data, data management, BI architecture, data visualization, data storytelling, Big Data and scalability are addressed.

Course code: INFN45 | Download syllabus

The course gives increased knowledge in Strategic Planning of ICT support for business development, and provides a clear understanding of control principles for coordination of business development and ICT. The course examines strategic structures in the enterprise. Further the course covers control models for business oriented IT-Governance. Control of ICT investments and ICT costs related to enterprise efficiency and business development is studied. The course addresses planning, control, and use of enterprise systems in organisations.

Course code: INFN40 | Download syllabus

Through this course the students will be able to understand the design and implementation of highly servitized and agile businesses where processes and decisions are managed as two distinct but interrelated aspects and assets. In more detail you will: further your understanding of the need for Separation of Concerns in Information Systems Design (ISD); learn how to design, model and manage operational business decisions according to Decision Model and Notation (an OMG standard); learn how to digitalise, automate and manage decision logic using a Business Rules Management System (BRMS) for hot deployment;  learn business process modelling on a basic level to automate operational work flows that connect decision tasks to decisions services.

Course code: INFN50 | Download syllabus

The course on IS Research Methods provides knowledge about dominant research methods and approaches in the field of Information Systems. It offers a discussion of the basics of scientific research in IS, the debate among the 'qualitatives' and the 'quantitatives', a wide range of data collection methods and analysis, foundational research philosophies, design science research in IS, scientific quality and research ethics, and research writing. 

The ultimate aim of the course is to help students in selecting and using appropriate research methods and theoretical frameworks in the empirical research process and argue for their methodological selections. Knowledge developed in this course is therefore vital for the master thesis work. 

The course includes lectures, guest lectures by known IS scholars, interactive discussion seminars, and workshops. The examination is based on student group work during the seminars which involves student-led lectures and literature summaries as well as writing a final research proposal.

Course code: INFN02 | Download syllabus

All organisations are affected by and dependent on processes, decisions and their digitalisation. Most of today’s managerial work requires knowledge and toolsets to manage business to be supported by and automated through Artificial Intelligence (AI). Moreover, to get real business value from AI, businesses must focus their efforts in AI on improving processes and decisions.

This course aims to provide an insight into designing business and Artificial Intelligence supporting business.

On completion of the course, students shall have a thorough understanding of how processes, decisions and AI shape today’s businesses and their design. Students shall be able to identify problems that can be solved by, or decisions that can be made or supported by AI in a business and be able to implement solutions to aid the aforementioned.

The course focuses on the challenges that business digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence poses in the modern organisation. To properly manage business, both managerial and technological aspects must be considered in conjunction. By studying business and Artificial Intelligence and through hands on workshops, the course focuses on how AI and business digitalisation alters internal and external parts of business within and across organisations.

Course code: INFN65 | Download syllabus

The Master Thesis involves independent work in teams of two students addressing a research problem. This is an independent piece of work, which means that the student-teams must themselves find a problem-area, they will not be provided with pre-defined problems. The problem-area must be relevant to information systems/informatics as a social science. Next the student-team must formulate a research-question and present a relevant theoretical framework, which provides the basis for planning and conducting an empirical investigation. The student-team must also draw conclusions from the empirical investigation and the theoretical framework. Finally, the investigation and the findings must be presented in a written thesis, which is examined at a seminar.

In the thesis the students will use quantitative or qualitative approaches, or some combination of these. The course on Information Systems Research Methods provide them with the appropriate knowledge and tools.

Course code: INFM12 | Download syllabus