Students pursuing a Master of Information Strategy, Systems and Technology (MISST) degree work in high-performance teams to complete eleven projects in two years. The projects are designed by experienced business and information technology faculty to simulate authentic business scenarios. Three of the projects are customized to the work environment. The focus of specific projects may be adapted to respond to emerging technologies or current issues affecting the business world.

The following are the MISST project descriptions:

INFR 501: Strategy & Technology introduces the subject matter and the learning model for the program. Students are introduced to the concept of business strategy and how information technology can be used to actualize a strategy. (3 credits)

INFR 607: Foundations for Information Strategy, Systems and Technology introduces the baseline of knowledge and skills that are the foundation of the program. There are three tracks of learning experienced in this project: 1.) self-assessment, 2.) MISST essentials and 3.) individualized learning to bridge students to enter MISST. (6 credits)

INFR 502: Building the Business Case assumes that a strategic decision has been made to develop an e-business to support a new or existing product or service. Given such a decision, students will develop a system architecture and design to support the strategic direction of the company. (6 credits)

INFR 503: Strategic Application Of Technology requires the evaluation of a specific technology to determine its strategic value to an organization. Students evaluate the risk, feasibility, competitive impact, technological fit, and strategic fit of the target technology, and recommend a course of action to the leadership of the organization. They also will plan a project to implement the technology chosen. (6 credits)

INFR 504: Strategic Vision focuses on developing a business strategy. Students analyze an enterprise’s competitive position identifying its key markets, core competencies and areas of competitive strength and weakness, looking for emerging new market opportunities and challenges to existing markets. (6 credits)

INFR 608: Applied Information Strategy, Systems & Technology requires the analysis of the information strategy used by an organization, and the development of a proposal to enhance that strategy. Students work independently on a self-designed project under the supervision of the faculty member. (3 credits)

INFR 506: Enterprise Architecture requires the development of enterprise architecture for an organization which is an efficient foundation for execution of the business’ strategic processes and a flexible foundation for the future agile development of new capabilities. (6 credits)

INFR 507: Enterprise Systems focuses on enterprise applications. Students will develop a strategy and a business case supporting the deployment of an enterprise application such as a customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, or enterprise business intelligence (EBI) system. Once the business case is established, students will design and implement a system addressing the needs of business domain addressed by the enterprise application. (6 credits)

INFR 508: Emerging Technologies requires the student to interpret both short and long term trends in technology, and to generate a forecast identifying these trends and their likely impact on an organization. Students will then develop a short and long term strategy for the organization using the technical forecast. (6 credits)

IFNR 609 & INFR 610: Capstone I and Capstone II are designed by the student. The objectives of these projects are open to negotiation between the student and faculty. Students will use them to immerse themselves in a practical information technology or business area of interest, and will likely build on one another if warranted. They work independently on these self-designed projects, under the supervision of faculty. If the projects are focused in the workplace, any work done must be shared with the organization’s leadership. Project results are presented to faculty and shared with other students at a poster session following completion of the Capstone II. (3 credits each)

Please Note:

• This listing provides an overview of the course schedule
• All INFR 500 level projects are team oriented and begin and end with on-campus sessions held on Friday evening and all day Saturday. The remaining time is spent utilizing on-line support communication systems.
• INFR 607 is an individual project and begins with an on-campus session held on Friday evening and all day Saturday. This project ends with an agreed upon meeting between the faculty and the individual participant.
  
• INFR 608, 609 and 610 are individual projects and are facilitated on an individual case basis as agreed upon between the faculty and participants.
• Financial arrangements or payment for each project is due prior to the start date of the project.