IS2184 Individual Assignment 2026

Individual Research Essay

For this course we expect essays on a topic relevant to the syllabus of IS2184 and based on theories and perspectives that are discussed in the course material. _It must not exceed 2500 words and this word limit includes all text, figures, tables and photographs, but excludes the bibliography and appendices. Appendices are only for background material; they must not exceed five pages and they will not be considered while determining the essay grade. A full bibliography is required, and referencing should be done in Harvard style (see the following website for reference: http://www.citethisforme.com/harvardreferencing).

This essay is an individual assignment which is intended to allow you to demonstrate your understanding of the course content.  Whilst you may choose to discuss your work with other people to ensure that you have understood it properly you may not collaborate with other people when it comes to preparing the detail of the assignment and drafting your essay.  You may not share, with any other student, any graphics, text or data files that form part of your assignment.

You are advised to pay particular attention to the way you reference other people’s ideas in your essay.  You should follow the programme guidelines for referencing, which should be read in conjunction with the University of London International Programme information on this matter.

Each essay will be checked using antiplagiarism detection systems. Plagiarism is not tolerated and, accordingly to the University of London International Programme regulations, is a disciplinary offence

The essay must have an abstract of maximum 100 words, be properly referenced and include a full bibliography. The abstract does count towards the final word count.  The essay must be word processed and securely bound and any graphics, images etc. should be prepared using suitable drawing packages.  Part of the assessment will be based on the presentation of the report.

Essay general guidelines

The essays shall focus on a relevant topic addressed in the course. The essay discusses a relevant information systems management problem or challenge, drawing mostly from academic literature and based on secondary data sources.

The essay requires you to focus on ONE information systems management issue covered in one of the following chapters of the subject guide: chapter 2 to chapter 11.

As drivers for your research you should try to focus your essay to address one specific issue addressed in the chapter you have chosen to focus your essay on.

The essay must critically discuss a relevant issue in the study of information systems management. Ideally, the essay should discuss the chose topic in relationship to a real-life problem and ideally refer to a real life case. You can use secondary data sources, such as business reports, magazines reports, or other available digital sources to collect the relevant information on the case. Any topic covered in the course material is suitable for the essay.

As an indicative guideline, the following section will highlight possible general ideas that can inform essays that are rooted in each individual chapter.

Essay Focus

In this section you will find a brief description of how a hypothetical essay that addresses the topic covered in a specific chapter of the subject guide shall be organised. These are general guidelines that cannot be considered as prescriptive of what an actual essay can or shall cover.

If you choose to focus the essay on the content covered in chapter two of the study guide you could focus your work on specific reasons why it is challenging to successfully deploy ICTs in organisations. Your work should build on change management theories to discuss one real life example that highlights the challenges faced by managers while deploying ICTs in organisations.

If you choose to focus the essay on the content covered in chapter three you could focus on the discussion of how companies define a technological and strategic configuration that is suitable to support a specific strategic goal of the firm. You should discuss the managerial challenges associated with a real life strategic plan associated with ICT deployments.

If you choose to focus the essay on the content covered in chapter four you should discuss how a project is planned and managed. You should apply what you have learnt studying the chapter to a specific project that relates to ICT deployment. Project management techniques should be both discussed and applied.

If you choose the content covered in chapter five as the main topic for your essay you could analyse a real life case of IT outsourcing and discuss how the theories you have learnt help to inform and analyse a decision to outsource ICT projects.

If you choose to focus your essay on the content covered in chapter six, you could analyse and discuss how executive managers manage ICT projects to ensure that the expected value is delivered. Such an essay should operationalise one of the two frameworks discussed in the chapter and apply it to a real life case.

If you choose the content covered in chapter seven as the main topic for your essay you could discuss an e-business case and analyse in detail how managers have been successful in managing the project so as to generate the expected value and address the legal and ethical challenges associated with the project. The focus of the essay has to be on the managerial aspects of the project and not only on the e-business achievements of the company.

If you choose to focus your essay on the content covered in chapter eight you could discuss the impact that an ERP system has or might have on an organisation’s business operations and highlight how managers have addressed the most common problems and challenges associated with the deployment of these systems. The use of a real life example will help to frame the proposed argument.

If you choose the content covered in chapter nine as the main topic for your essay you could discuss how managers use decision support systems and big data analytics to support and improve the organisation performance. Such an essay should discuss a specific data analytics technique and should discuss with the help of a real life example the challenges that managers face to guarantee an effective use of these systems.

If you choose to focus your essay on the content covered in chapter ten you could discuss how knowledge management systems can help mangers to better identify, select, organize, and disseminate the information produced and processed by the organisation. Such an essay could discuss one specific knowledge management system and, referring to a real life example, analyse the managerial challenges associated with the management and implementation of the chosen knowledge management project.

If you choose the content covered in chapter eleven as the main topic for your essay you could discuss how managers should address the differences that exist across markets when they design and deploy information systems. Referring to a real life example the essay could discuss how in the specific case chosen as real life example, managers have addressed the major ethical, social, and legal issues associated with the specific ICT solution.

Essay Structure

The essay must have two major components: the core essay (i.e. introduction and context; information systems management issue; discussion and argument; conclusions) and a final critical reflections section (i.e. complementary approaches) that discusses two complementary approaches to the study of the real case example of information systems management addressed in the core sections.

The critical reflections section must comprise at least 500 words. It should discuss why the topics covered in two chapters of the study guide, other than the one used to inform the analysis in the core section, would be valuable in extending the analysis to offer a more comprehensive understanding of the managerial challenges associated with the chosen real life case of information systems management analyzed in the core sections of the essay.

There is no hard and fast structure for your essay, but what follows is intended as a guide to good practice and may help you to organize your essay.

Core Sections

Introduction and Context

As you think about your choice of essay topic you need to work to understand what problem you will be addressing (your research question) and what kind of answers you might offer  that will be of interest to a reader (your contribution). Remember that any particular IT initiative will almost certainly allow alternative questions and issues to be addressed. You must also ask yourself what perspective you will be taking (what topic or chapter you will focus your research on), as well as what real life example you will rely upon.

You need to be specific about what you will write about and contextualise the real life example you will rely upon within the information systems management issue you have decided to address.

Information systems management issue

In this section you will discuss in detail the information systems management issue that you will focus on to inform the analysis of the real life case you present, discuss and analyse in the next section.

Discussion and argument

A main section of your essay will structure and present your real life example and discuss in details the information systems management issue that you introduced and examined in the previous sections. The discussion and analysis of the case shall provide evidence of your understanding of the information systems management issue you are addressing.

Conclusion

In this final section, you need to explain ‘what this all means’, or what lessons you draw from the topic you researched. Remember that conclusions are important and will often make the difference between an OK and a good essay – take the time to make them substantial and distinctive.

Critical reflections

In this section you should discuss how two other aspects of information systems management in addition to the one you have addressed in the previous section would be valuable to better understand the complexity associated with the management of the information systems real life case/example that you have discussed in the first section of the essay.

For example if you have chosen to discuss a case form the angle of knowledge management (chapter 10) you might consider to discuss the business intelligence and big data (Chapter 9) and the ethical and legal (Chapter 11) managerial challenges, that are associated with the real life case example that you have discussed in detail from the knowledge management perspective.

This section is very important to highlight your understanding of the complexity of the subject covered in this course and hence of the complexities of the challenges that managers involved in the management of ICT project must address.

IS2184 Information Systems Management Course information 2025-26 

General information

MODULE LEVEL: 5

CREDIT: 30

NOTIONAL STUDY TIME: 300 hours

MODE: Locally Taught, Independent Learner Route and Online Taught 

Summary

This course studies the management of information systems in organisations. It identifies the main managerial factors affecting the design and implementation of ICTs in organisations. It also introduces basic principles of project management and governance. The course also overviews the most common strategies associated with ICT management and the tools used to manage these strategies. These are contrasted with organisational issues such as structure, planning and control and deployment framework. Finally, the course provides a holistic view of benefit management and information systems strategy alignment.

Conditions

Please refer to the relevant programme structure in the EMFSS Programme Regulations to check:

• where this course can be placed on your degree structure; and
• details of prerequisites and corequisites for this course.

You should also refer to the Exclusions list in the EMFSS Programme Regulations to check if any exclusions apply for this course.

Aims and objectives

This course provides the fundamental concepts needed to understand information technology management in organisations from the perspectives of information systems, organisation and management theory. It introduces critical ideas to address the problems related to the use and implementation of information technology in organisations.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course and having completed the essential reading and activities students should be able to:

• explain how different models used to analyse organisations are reflected in different information systems architectures.
• differentiate various classes and types of information system developed and used in organisations, seen within an historical context.
• present arguments for a strategic role for information systems within organisations and alternative models to support this role and to establish such strategies.
• explain how information and communication technologies change organisations and industry structures.
• discuss the importance of the process of managing the design and implementation of information systems on the effective value generated by their adoption.
• explain the basic principles of project management from technical and organisational standpoints, including time, cost, and performance issues.
• evaluate alternative approaches to design organisational forms to pursue the effective implementation of information systems across the enterprise.
• describe the basic principles and elements of benefit management, in the context of the alignment of the strategy of an enterprise and its information systems development.

Employability skills 

Below are the three most relevant employability skills that students acquire by undertaking this course which can be conveyed to future prospective employers:

1. Digital Skills
2. Decision making
3. Complex problem-solving

Essential reading

For full details, please refer to the reading list.

Reynolds, W. Information systems for Managers (Cengage, 2015) second edition. [ISBN 9781305389830]

Assessment

This course is assessed by a three-hour and fifteen-minute closed-book written examination (60%) and coursework (40%).

Syllabus

Section 1: Background and models of information systems management: 

• Overview of the main trends in the management of digitalisation in the firm; discussion of Information and Communication Technologies’ (ICTs) importance in contemporary organisations.
• Logic underpinning information systems management and the importance of strategic planning when ICT deployment in organisations is concerned.
• Discussion of the most common technological solutions used by firms to support different managerial and business activities.

Section 2: Managing information systems projects:

The following topics are approached from both the technical and the organisational perspective:

• Project management and its use to develop and implement information systems to help firms achieve timely competitive advantage.
• Project planning, control, and homogeneous deployment in enterprises.
• ICT governance and outsourcing.

Section 3: Information systems and benefit management:

A discussion of the main managerial and economic benefits generated by information systems adoption in organisations:

• E-business.
• Big Data analytics.
• Knowledge management.

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