IS Research Seminars (12-13 Feb. 2009): Don Petkov and Olga Petkov
NOTICE OF RESEARCH SEMINAR
No: 2009.1 & 2009.2
Date: 12-13 February 2009
Time: 12h30 - 14h00
Venue: The Gallery, Centre for African Studies, Oppenheimer Institute
Building
Speakers: Don Petkov and Olga Petkov
TOPIC: (Thursday)
The Systems Approach in Information Systems and Software Engineering -
Opportunities, Challenges and Trends
ABSTRACT:
The talk provides possible directions for the wider application of the
systems approach to information systems development. Potential improvement
of software development practices is linked by some leading experts like B
Boehm to the application of more systemic ideas. However, the current state
of the practice in software engineering and information systems development
shows the urgent need for improvement through greater application of systems
thinking. The talk discusses briefly the state of the art in this area with
possible suggestions for research work aiming towards a wider application of
the systems approach in information systems and software engineering. The
talk is based on several journal papers by the authors.
TOPIC: (Friday)
The Place of Systems Thinking in the Undergraduate and Postgraduate IS
Curriculum
ABSTRACT:
The starting assumption of building the case for wider introduction of
systems thinking is the current poor state of IS implementation practices
and the conclusions on the need for a wider adherence to a systems approach
by experts like A. Lee and B Boehm. A significant amount of work has been
done on IS related applications of Soft Systems Methodology by Checkland and
more recently on the Work System Method by Alter. The talk will provide an
overview of the current state of the art in those directions, will present
the work of the authors like the use of SSM in evaluating factors affecting
software development productivity, in planning of rural telecommunications
infrastructure (with T Andrew and T Nepal) and in mixing SSM with UML (with
K Sewchurran). It will present also the first field experiment on the use of
the Work System Method (WSM) for promoting better understanding of IT
implementation problems conducted by the speakers and published recently.
Further suggestions on the integration of WSM and SSM in the undergraduate
and postgraduate IT curriculum are provided. The talk is based on two
journal papers by the authors.
SPEAKERS:
Dr Olga Petkova is a Full Professor in MIS at Central Connecticut State
University, USA. Previously she has taught at several universities in South
Africa and Zimbabwe and worked at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in
Sofia. Her publications are in software development productivity, systems
thinking and Information Systems education. They have appeared in Decision
Support Systems, Journal of Information Technology Theory and Applications (JITTA),
Journal of Informatics Education Research, JITCA and elsewhere.
Dr. Doncho Petkov is a Full Professor and Coordinator of the BIS program
at Eastern Connecticut State University, USA. He is a deputy editor (USA)
for Systems Research and Behavioral Science and Senior Area Editor (Software
Engineering) of IJITSA. His publications in IS management, systems thinking
and Software Engineering have appeared in the Journal of Systems and
Software, Decision Support Systems, Telecommunications Policy, IRMJ,
International Journal on Technology Management, IJITSA, JITCA, South African
Computing Journal and elsewhere.
A finger lunch and refreshments will be provided. To RSVP and for
further information on the seminar please call 650 4242 or email:
linda.magodla@uct.ac.za
| 
