IT Professional Services Theory and Practice

Course Description

Explores and applies the basic concepts, methodologies, tools, and techniques of consulting and professional service organizations in information sciences and technology. IST 443 IT Professional Services Theory and Practice (3) This course is designed to introduce students to basic IT professional services theories and practices, including an examination of the professional services industry. A consulting-oriented systems life cycle framework is used as the outline of the course. The phases of this framework include: problem/system analysis and evaluation, requirements definition, solution design, solution development, solution implementation, and on-going evaluation and maintenance. Students will learn how to identify and define client problems, map workflows, develop recommendations, and prototype solutions. They will be given opportunities to practice the concepts and methodologies they learn by working on real-world problems in teams for corporate clients.This course is designed around real-world problems and projects involving IT systems development, integration and implementation. In this course, the student will be part of a consulting team that is assigned to work with a real corporate client. The student works with the other team members to define their client’s problem, map out appropriate workflows, and make recommendations for a solution. Depending on the project, the recommended solution may be prototyped or fully developed during the course.