This unit was developed as part of the restructure of the BITS carried out as part of the IT faculty review in 2010. It is a core unit in the Enterprise Information Management major of the BITS.

October: Replacement of 2-hour lecture with 1-hour seminar; increase of tutorial time from 2 to 3 hours. Done because the unit material is easier to teach and easier for students to engage with when presented in a more interactive teaching format

Sept 2015: Added FIT1052 to prerequisites so students planning to do the 2016 information and society minor can plan appropriately. Unit content changes (in google drive doc) will happen in 2017.

14/05/14 - Admin update: minor change to learning outcomes (as approved by ADE).

21 February 2014 - Learning Objectives revised as Learning Outcomes. Change to be implemented from Semester 2 2014. 28/4/2021 - Unit disestablished at FEC 2/21 Item 6.2

This unit is one of the four core units in the Enterprise Information Management major which was introduced as part of the BITS review in 2010. These four core units in the major - FIT1036, FIT1037, FIT2074 and FIT2075 - address fundamental concepts in organisations, information, technology and the development of strategies for information management and systems acquisition and implementation. They aim to provide students with a grounding in the basic concepts and key themes which underly the content of the later units in the major. The units incorporate elements of FIT1003 and the level 1 and level 2 introductory units in the previous IM and IS majors. In place of the narrower discipline-based focus of those units, they blend the approaches of the two disciplines to provide a broader overview of key issues relating to organisational information needs, and the capabilities and limitations of IT-based applications to satisfy them.

This unit aims to build on the basic concepts of organizations and information provided in FIT1036. In doing so, it provide a critical overview of the evolution of information technologies and their strengths and weaknesses for satifying the needs of different types of organisational information applications. In addition it will extend the introduction provided in FIT1036 to examine broader issues relating to the interaction between computer-based technologies and organizational structures, information usage and work patterns. The main focus of the unit is on information technologies and their capabilities, but in contrast to most other technology-oriented units offered by the faculty, the emphasis of this unit is not on the nature of the technology itself, but on the inter-relationships between technology and the human and organisational needs for information. The unit will not study specific technologies in depth, but will provide a suitable context for subsequent units in the major which do this in areas such as ERP systems, e-commerce, Knowledge management and the like. Much of the content is new material, but it will use some content from the previous units FIT2052, FIT2053 and FIT2055.

On the completion of this unit, students should be able to:

020399

This unit examines the way in which information technology influences the structures and operations of organisations and organisational approaches to the management and use of information. The capabilities and limitations of technologies and the way they have been commoditised and standardised in the marketplace are fundamental determinants of what IT-based applications are capable of achieving. As technologies have evolved and been commoditised, they have shaped and in turn been shaped by what individuals and organisations want and expect from them. This unit applies this perspective as a basis for analysing the main technologies employed by organisations for the use and management of information.

On-campus

Examination (3 hours): 60%; in-semester assessment: 40%

Minimum total expected workload equals 12 hours per week comprising:

(a.) Contact hours for on-campus students:

Tutorials to be in held in K block studios.

FIT

One of FIT1036, FIT1003 or FIT1052