Self-assessment report for international accreditation - Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes in Information Technology

Lappeenrannan teknillisen yliopiston Tietotekniikan kandidaatin ja maisterin tutkinto-ohjelmien itsearviointi toteutettiin v. 2012 kansainvälistä akkreditointia varten. Itsearviointiraportissa kuvataan tutkinto-ohjelmien tavoitteet, toteutus ja arviointimenettelyt sekä tulokset.

Information technology service management: an experimental approach towards IT service prediction

Dissertation presented to obtain a Masters degree in Computer Science

Generic skill development for research higher degree students: an Australian example

While the development of undergraduate generic skills has become a significant issue in universities in Australia and the UK, identifying research higher degree students' generic attributes have been ignored until recently. This paper reviews the list of generic skills the Council of Australian Deans and Directory of Graduate Studies would like research students to develop. A number of approaches that seek to develop research students' generic attributes are explored, including an innovative learning partnership between the Australian Technology Network (ATN) Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies (DDOGS), working on, among other things, a series of online generic skills modules for ATN research students that will cover topics such as project management, entrepreneurship, leadership and communication, technological and commercial development and understanding public policy.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS IN NONPROFIT UNIVERSITY: A PROJECT GOVERNANCE PERSPECTIVE

The universities rely on the Information Technology (IT) projects to support and enhance their core strategic objectives of teaching, research, and administration. The researcher’s literature review found that the level of IT funding and resources in the universities is not adequate to meet the IT demands. The universities received more IT project requests than they could execute. As such, universities must selectively fund the IT projects. The objectives of the IT projects in the universities vary. An IT project which benefits the teaching functions may not benefit the administrative functions. As such, the selection of an IT project is challenging in the universities. To aid with the IT decision making, many universities in the United States of America (USA) have formed the IT Governance (ITG) processes. ITG is an IT decision making and accountability framework whose purpose is to align the IT efforts in an organization with its strategic objectives, realize the value of the IT investments, meet the expected performance criteria, and manage the risks and the resources (Weil & Ross, 2004). ITG in the universities is relatively new, and it is not well known how the ITG processes are aiding the nonprofit universities in selecting the right IT projects, and managing the performance of these IT projects. This research adds to the body of knowledge regarding the IT project selection under the governance structure, the maturity of the IT projects, and the IT project performance in the nonprofit universities. The case study research methodology was chosen for this exploratory research. The convenience sampling was done to choose the cases from two large, research universities with decentralized colleges, and two small, centralized universities. The data were collected on nine IT projects from these four universities using the interviews and the university documents. The multi-case analysis was complemented by the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to systematically analyze how the IT conditions lead to an outcome. This research found that the IT projects were selected in the centralized universities in a more informed manner. ITG was more authoritative in the small centralized universities; the ITG committees were formed by including the key decision makers, the decision-making roles, and responsibilities were better defined, and the frequency of ITG communication was higher. In the centralized universities, the business units and colleges brought the IT requests to ITG committees; which in turn prioritized the IT requests and allocated the funds and the resources to the IT projects. ITG committee members in the centralized universities had a higher awareness of the university-wide IT needs, and the IT projects tended to align with the strategic objectives. On the other hand, the decentralized colleges and business units in the large universities were influential and often bypassed the ITG processes. The decentralized units often chose the “pet” IT projects, and executed them within a silo, without bringing them to the attention of the ITG committees. While these IT projects met the departmental objectives, they did not always align with the university’s strategic objectives. This research found that the IT project maturity in the university could be increased by following the project management methodologies. The IT project management maturity was found higher in the IT projects executed by the centralized university, where a full-time project manager was assigned to manage the project, and the project manager had a higher expertise in the project management. The IT project executed under the guidance of the Project Management Office (PMO) has exhibited a higher project management maturity, as the PMO set the standards and controls for the project. The IT projects managed by the decentralized colleges by a part-time project manager with lower project management expertise have exhibited a lower project management maturity. The IT projects in the decentralized colleges were often managed by the business, or technical leads, who often lacked the project management expertise. This research found that higher the IT project management maturity, the better is the project performance. The IT projects with a higher maturity had a lower project delay, lower number of missed requirements, and lower number of IT system errors. This research found that the quality of IT decision in the university could be improved by centralizing the IT decision-making processes. The IT project management maturity could be improved by following the project management methodologies. The stakeholder management and communication were found critical for the success of the IT projects in the university. It is hoped that the findings from this research would help the university leaders make the strategic IT decisions, and the university’s IT project managers make the IT project decisions.

Describing and Analyzing Information Technology through Total Quality Management and Process Management: Case Stora Enso Newsprint

Laatu on osaltaan vahvistamassa asemaansa liike-elämässä yritysten kilpaillessa kansainvälisillä markkinoilla niin hinnalla kuin laadulla. Tämä suuntaus on synnyttänyt useita laatuohjelmia, joita käytetään ahkerasti yritysten kokonais- valtaisen laatujohtamisen (TQM) toteuttamisessa. Laatujohtaminen kattaa yrityksen kaikki toiminnot ja luo vaatimuksia myös yrityksen tukitoimintojen kehittämiselle ja parantamiselle. Näihin lukeutuu myös tämän tutkimuksen kohde tietohallinto (IT). Tutkielman tavoitteena oli kuvata IT prosessin nykytila. Tutkielmassa laadittu prosessikuvaus pohjautuu prosessijohtamisen teoriaan ja kohdeyrityksen käyttämään laatupalkinto kriteeristöön. Tutkimusmenetelmänä prosessin nykytilan selvittämiseksi käytettiin teemahaastattelutta. Prosessin nykytilan ja sille asetettujen vaatimusten selvittämiseksi haastateltiin IT prosessin asiakkaita. Prosessianalyysi, tärkeimpien ala-prosessien tunnistaminen ja parannusalueiden löytäminen ovat tämän tutkielman keskeisemmät tulokset. Tutkielma painottui IT prosessin heikkouksien ja parannuskohteiden etsimiseen jatkuvan kehittämisen pohjaksi, ei niinkään prosessin radikaaliin uudistamiseen. Tutkielmassa esitellään TQM:n periaatteet, laatutyökaluja sekä prosessijohtamisen terminologia, periaatteet ja sen systemaattinen toteutus. Työ antaa myös kuvan siitä, miten TQM ja prosessijohtaminen niveltyvät yrityksen laatutyössä.

Learning information technology business in a changing industry landscape. Introducing Team Entrepreneurship in Renewing Bachelor Education in Renewing Bachelor Education in Information

Speed, uncertainty and complexity are increasing in the business world all the time. When knowledge and skills become quickly irrelevant, new challenges are set for information technology (IT) education. Meta-learning skills – learning how to learn rapidly - and innovation skills have become more essential than single technologies or other specific issues. The drastic changes in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector have caused a need to reconsider how IT Bachelor education in Universities of Applied Sciences should be organized and employed to cope with the change. The objective of the study was to evaluate how a new approach to IT Bachelor education, the ICT entrepreneurship study path (ICT-ESP) fits IT Bachelor education in a Finnish University of Applied Sciences. This kind of educational arrangement has not been employed elsewhere in the context of IT Bachelor education. The study presents the results of a four-year period during which IT Bachelor education was renewed in a Finnish University of Applied Sciences. The learning environment was organized into an ICT-ESP based on Nonaka’s knowledge theory and Kolb’s experiental learning. The IT students who studied in the ICT-ESP established a cooperative and learned ICT by running their cooperative at the University of Applied Sciences. The students (called team entrepreneurs) studied by reading theory in books and other sources of explicit information, doing projects for their customers, and reflecting in training sessions on what was learnt by doing and by studying the literature. Action research was used as the research strategy in this study. Empirical data was collected via theme-based interviews, direct observation, and participative observation. Grounded theory method was utilized in the data analysis and the theoretical sampling was used to guide the data collection. The context of the University of Applied Sciences provided a good basis for fostering team entrepreneurship. However, the results showed that the employment of the ICT-ESP did not fit into the IT Bachelor education well enough. The ICT-ESP was cognitively too tough for the team entrepreneurs because they had two different set of rules to follow in their studies. The conventional courses engaged lot of energy which should have been spent for professional development in the ICT-ESP. The amount of competencies needed in the ICT-ESP for professional development was greater than those needed for any other ways of studying. The team entrepreneurs needed to develop skills in ICT, leadership and self-leadership, team development and entrepreneurship skills. The entrepreneurship skills included skills on marketing and sales, brand development, productization, and business administration. Considering the three-year time the team entrepreneurs spent in the ICT-ESP, the challenges were remarkable. Changes to the organization of IT Bachelor education are also suggested in the study. At first, it should be admitted that the ICT-ESP produces IT Bachelors with a different set of competencies compared to the conventional way of educating IT Bachelors. Secondly, the number of courses on general topics in mathematics, physics, and languages for team entrepreneurs studying in the ICTESP should be reconsidered and the conventional course-based teaching of the topics should be reorganized to support the team coaching process of the team entrepreneurs with their practiceoriented projects. Third, the upcoming team entrepreneurs should be equipped with relevant information about the ICT-ESP and what it would require in practice to study as a team entrepreneur. Finally, the upcoming team entrepreneurs should be carefully selected before they start in the ICT-ESP to have a possibility to eliminate solo players and those who have a too romantic view of being a team entrepreneur. The results gained in the study provided answers to the original research questions and the objectives of the study were met. Even though the IT degree programme was terminated during the research process, the amount of qualitative data gathered made it possible to justify the interpretations done.