BA Information Technology for Business

The module features the fundamentals of management through the functions of planning, organising, controlling and leading. It highlights the strategic approach towards managerial decision-making and provides knowledge to students on how to approach problems, challenges and opportunities linked with human resources, motivation and teamwork. It features the key fundamentals on communication, change management and leadership and highlights the importance of ethical behaviour and social responsibility in managerial decision-making. At the end of the module, you will be able to:

• Exercise management and supervision in the key functions of management, namely, planning, organising, controlling and leading people. Facilitate the process of managing stakeholders and corporate governance in a competitive environment;
• Study and influence culture and managing organisations through behavioural and situational models through motivational techniques;
• Address and apply intelligence in unpredictable change in organisations through teams and team work and demonstrate a level of power and reasoning to manage activities effectively and efficiently;
• Develop performance management systems of people and set measurement control systems;
• Demonstrate aptitude and capabilities to complete basic finance and budgetary control;
• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of relevant ethical expectations and any professional regulatory compliance requirements as set out by national and international bodies.

Students will have knowledge and understanding of key components of accounting and finance including measuring and reporting financial position, performance and analysing and interpreting financial statements based on cash-flow statements, profit and loss account and balance sheets. The Module provides a sound basis of cost-volume profit analysis, costing and budgeting. Furthermore, it will provide students with knowledge, skills and competencies on how to make basic capital investment decisions and how to manage working capital. At the end of the module, you will be able to:

• Exercise management and supervision in the key functions of accounting namely, measuring and reporting financial performance, making capital investment decisions, and doing budgets whilst reporting cash flows;
• Study and influence accounting and finance managerial decisions focusing on making capital investment decision and financing the business in the long and short-term;
• Be competent in understanding the regulatory requirements as set out by national and international bodies;
• Address and apply intelligence in unpredictable change in organisations through teams and team work and demonstrate a level of power and reasoning to manage the finance of an organisation effectively and efficiently;
• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of relevant ethical expectations and any professional regulatory compliance requirements as set out by national and international bodies.

The module provides students with the knowledge and understanding of strategic HRM and also the skills, abilities and competences to prospective and present managers on how they maximise the potentials of human resources in an organisation. It provide the tools, knowledge and understanding on how the management of human resources management contributes towards corporate objectives. Students will enhance their knowledge and understanding of how HRM theories including performance management, recruitment and selection, employee welfare, ethics and corporate social responsibility, reward systems and talent management can be applied in practice. The module is intended to give students the know-how to resolve HRM issues and highlights the current trends in this important discipline in management. At the end of the module, you will be able to:

• Be able to critically evaluate and apply theories to practice the main concepts and theories of human resources management;
• Be able to identify, assess and practice the key functions of the HR functions from a strategic and operational perspective;
• Be able to identify, determine and apply to practice the international human resources management perspective to issues, challenges and opportunities within the HR function of both public and private sector organisations;
• Apply human resource management within a restructuring context and general organisational context;
• Be able to evaluate and apply in practice the basics of human resources planning, recruitment and selection;
• Be able to identify, evaluate and apply the basic concept of performance and reward management;
• Be able to assess and critically evaluate the challenges, issues and opportunities for employee involvement, employee relations and human resources training and development needs for both public and private sector organisations;
• Be able to identify, evaluate and apply practice in employee welfare principles;
• Be able to apply HRM models, frameworks and HRM paradigms within organisational culture and diversity at the workplace;
• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of relevant ethical expectations and any professional regulatory compliance requirements as set out by national and international bodies.

The module covers the different environments within which companies and public sector organisations have to operate and gives the students the appropriate knowledge to assess the strategic capabilities of an organisation. It further provides views and concepts of strategic choices and strategic purposes of organisations and highlights the key components of organisational culture and how this influences and impacts the strategy. Various types of business strategies are explained and tools, models and frameworks on how corporate strategy can be applied through diversification are part of the module content. The module includes theories and practical models that can be applied through innovation and mergers, acquisitions and alliances. Leadership and strategic change and how these are applied within a firm are key elements of this module. At the end of the module, you will be able to:

• Identify the key components of a strategy and issues associated with organisational strategy;
• Appreciate the contributions of different academic disciplines and theoretical lenses to practice strategy analysis;
• Analyze macro- and micro-environments on organisational strategy and identify successful strategies for business organisations;
• Use various concepts and technique to recognize threats and opportunities in the marketplace;
• Identify and analyses how strategic capabilities can provide sustainable competitive advantage;
• Understand and undertake stakeholder analysis and corporate responsibilities performance models;
• Analyse the influence of organisational culture on strategy;
• Identify and assess generic business strategies and internationalization and their benefits in a competitive environment;
• Determine the appropriate choices between mergers and acquisition and alliances;
• Assess the value of strategic change;
• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of relevant ethical expectations and any professional regulatory compliance requirements as set out by national and international bodies.

1. Information underpins all aspects of global society, and increasingly our activities are underpinned and driven by digital information, we call this digitalisation. Within an organisation, the systems which collect, process, store and provide information are called information systems. Organisations establish information systems in order to control their current activities, and also as the basis for changing and improving their ways of doing things. This module will focus on the structure, operation and role of digital information systems on businesses and organisations. This module introduces students to key technologies of the World Wide Web and database systems. Students will learn the fundamental concepts of database management systems, with a focus on relational database design and development to solve real-world problems. Additionally, the module introduces the basic client and server-side web technologies needed to develop an interface and connect to a database system. The module uses a problem-based approach to provide students with the necessary support to develop their analytical and problem-solving skills. The students’ knowledge and skills will be applied on a real-world coursework project.

   The key objectives of the module are to:

• introduce students to the principles of information systems and their role in contemporary organisations;
• present in non-technical and business-relevant terms the technology underpinning contemporary information systems;
• explain how digital information systems change organisations, marketplaces and our society through present-day examples;
• develop students’ understanding of the theory, design, and development of database systems and the key role database systems play in the real world;
• equip students with the basic knowledge of frontend and backend web technologies that can be used to interface a database system; and,
• develop students’ analytical and problem-solving skills via modelling data of real-world problems.

Computers have become commonplace in many areas of our lives and are able to accomplish many things that humans would find difficult, if not impossible, to do by their own unaided efforts. Whilst computers can perform many calculations in a very short time they generally do not possess the ability to learn or to reason about novel situations or to process incomplete or uncertain data. They will need knowledge of the environment in which they operate so that they can understand what their sensors are monitoring and so that they can behave rationally. This module demonstrates the basic principles and methods of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and provides the basis for understanding and later choosing the correct tools for building such systems. Applications that motivate the development of Artificial Intelligence technology include intelligent robots, automated navigation for autonomous vehicles, object recognition and tracking, medical diagnosis, language communications and many others. Any application that requires human-like intelligence is an application for Artificial Intelligence. The key objectives of the module are to demonstrate a variety of techniques for capturing human knowledge and represent it in a computer in a way that enables the machine to learn and reason over the data represented and mimic the human ability to deal with incomplete or uncertain data. This module introduces the range of artificial intelligence elements that future robots or intelligent machines must possess as embedded implementations if they are to behave intelligently.
Directly linked to the Maltese Qualification Framework Level 6 descriptors and required learning outcomes at MQF Level 6, at the end of the module the successful learner will be able to:

• evaluate how current AI systems are developed and work; and,
• develop a critical appreciation of emerging AI technologies and their possible implementation.

Security is probably the greatest challenge for computer and information system management. Many users have lost data due to viruses, both on home and business computers. Most of us have seen a range of emails messages attempting different kinds of fraud. Vulnerabilities are everywhere. Some are obvious or well-known; others are obscure and harder to identify. Security is not limited to secrecy and confidentiality, but also involves problems like integrity, availability, and effectiveness of information. Moreover, security issues can potentially affect all of us, from innocent home users to companies and even governments. Security is not just a technical problem but needs to be embedded throughout an organisation to be effective. As such good security solutions build on a complete understanding of the values at stake, and the supporting business processes and requirements. This includes people as well as information systems and physical resources. Consequently, raising security awareness and embedding security within roles and policies is as important, if not more, as secure software. In short, secure solutions can only be implemented with both good technical skills and a good understanding of cultures and people skills. This module aims at raising the awareness for the wide range of security issues present in today’s connected world and the managerial and organisational challenges a business must face when building a secure solution. The aim of the module is accordingly to equip the students with the analytical skills and knowledge to assess security in systems and organisations, and to incorporate appropriate levels of security in the various steps of a systems lifecycle.

Directly linked to the Maltese Qualification Framework Level 6 descriptors and required learning outcomes at MQF Level 6, at the end of the module the successful learner will be able to:

• critically identify the vulnerabilities and challenges associated with embedding security throughout an organisation;
• justify and analyse technical and human solutions to security awareness; and,
• critically evaluate key international standards associated with information security management and associated risk management strategies.

The module highlights the importance of research mindedness within a business environment and builds upon elements already introduced in the other modules studied on the programme. The module enables students to develop research mindedness, critical understanding and skills for business research. Students will enhance their knowledge and skills on research mindedness and its relevance for practice. They will frame research questions and plan and develop a literature-based project proposal and make use of library/electronic resources. The module will further provide students with knowledge on qualitative and quantitative methodologies and the ethics of business research. The module will enhance a student’s ability to integrate research and theory for evidence-based practice. At the end of the module, you will be able to:

• Recognise the importance and be able to explain the nature and purpose of research and classify different types of research;
• Study and demonstrate the main stages in a research process and identify the characteristics of a good research project;
• Address and apply intelligence in understanding the general standards for research at different levels for effective career progression and self-development;
• Demonstrate competences and skills in identifying research constraints such as funding, time and resources and determine the knowledge, skills and personal qualities researchers need to produce meaningful research outputs;
• Demonstrate competence in using different techniques for generating research topics;
• Address and apply intelligence to negotiate access to data and to consider relevant ethical issues as part of the research project;
• Apply intelligence and competences in planning the management of a research process;
• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of relevant ethical expectations and any professional regulatory compliance requirements as set out by national and international bodies.

In today’s world where companies can amass more and more fine-grained data, it is crucial for a business to understand how this data can be used to effectively drive the business forward. Business Analytics is a set of methods and tools that can transform data into useful insights for decision-making. For example, machine learning algorithms can be used to discover interesting patterns in the current market data or to predict customer behaviour (for example, customer churn) from past data. -based approach to provide students with the necessary support to develop their analytical and problem-solving skills. The students’ knowledge and skills will be applied on a real-world coursework project. The key objectives of the module are to:

• introduce students to Business Analytics from a practical point of view and how it is applied for decision making;
• teach students related concepts such as Data Mining Life Cycle, Machine Learning Algorithms, Model Evaluation and Data Visualisation; and,
• allow students to learn about the applications of Business Analytics through case studies and practical examples in practical sessions and through coursework.

The module aims to explore the concepts, models and techniques underpinning the IT architecture discipline and the importance of IT architecture and the role of IT Architects in business organisations. Students will be able to gain practical experience in designing an IT architecture solution for a business scenario case study. The foundations and approaches to IT architecture design will be studied together with the analysis of the limitations of ad-hoc IT design methods which led to the development of the IT architecture discipline. An understanding of state-of-the-art trends in IT architecture will also be gained. The module uses problem-based learning techniques and case studies. The key objectives of the module are to:

• provide an introduction to IT Architecture;
• explore IT Architecture Processes, Activities and Roles; explore qualities and constraints in IT Architecture;
• examine IT Architecture Development: Methods, Models and Techniques
• through a case study workshop examine IT Architecture in Practice; and,
• explore advanced topics in IT Architecture.

Each student will be guided on a one-to-one basis by an appointed supervisor on how to identify an appropriate research topic, an appropriate approach to adopt in seeking to address the agreed research question and how to apply relevant research philosophies and strategies. Students will be expected to be able to justify identified research questions and test emerging research hypotheses. The module necessarily seeks to build on BABM19. At the end of the module, you will be able to:

• Manage and transform a research proposal into a research study that has the potential to add value to the area being explored;
• Manage the planning of a research project, taking into account potentially complex and unpredictable situations, and including research milestones;
• Undertake an analytical literature review in the chosen discipline area and, from this review, prepare an appropriate bibliography;
• Understand and explain the relevance of differing philosophical perspectives and understand the main research paradigms which are significant for a business research project;
• Understand the importance of research ethics at each stage of a research project, having regard to, for example, the principles of data protection and data management;
• Review and apply knowledge to determine appropriate sampling techniques for a variety of differing research scenarios and be able to justify their selection;
• Manage complex techniques to gather secondary and primary data and apply the knowledge, skills and understanding gained to an actual research project;
• Make a contribution to professional knowledge and practice through the output of the major project;
• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of relevant ethical expectations and any professional regulatory compliance requirements as set out by national and international bodies.