Prerequisite/Recommended prerequisite for participation in the module

Content, progress and pedagogy of the module

The objective of this module is to introduce the concept of infrastructure management from two perspectives: one looking at the technological trends supporting services and one looking at the organizational and communicational side of services. In this module, the students will explore the possible configurations of distributed systems, analyzing their different components and their impact on the way services are designed. In addition, the organizational side of service dimension will be considered, particularly by examining distributed systems as a consolidated way to organise production processes and to support service-centered communication.

Key related themes related to current technological and organizational trends will also be analyzed.

Learning objectives

Knowledge

Students who complete the course module will obtain the following qualifications:

• Understand the key technologies behind social networking, search engines, organisation of content and user-generated tagging
• Understand the IT infrastructure needed to support living services
• Understand the concepts of ”service architecture”
• Analyse, explain and discuss methods for managing systemic components of services: user involvement, complex interaction among the stakeholders, including the technological ones, context of use, etc.
• Analyse drivers and barriers for introduction of new ICT services from a technology, user, organizational and market perspective
• Understand the concept of modularisation of products and services
• Understand and explain the potential benefits of modularisation, in respect to personalisation of service
• Apply techniques and tools to control key technologies and processes behind social networking, search engines, organisation of content, user-generated tagging and other communication platforms as key components of services

Skills

Students who complete the course module will obtain the following qualifications:

• Classify services and outline the requirements that a given service imposes on networks and terminals (analysis)
• Understand and apply user-centred service development and stakeholder analysis in setting up the requirements specification for a service
• Be able to analyse and evaluate various dimensions of modular products and services
• Be able to position modular products and services in a specific business context (analysis).
• Be able to apply different concepts and theories to specific cases

Competences

Students who complete the course module will obtain the following qualifications:

• Analyse and design (synthesis) a realistic ICT or physical service (on a conceptual level) to address an identified user need and discuss the service architecture needed to realise the proposed service
• Demonstrate understanding through application in exercises and cases of:
  • Various key technological components of products and services
  • Various organizations characterized by differences in maturity and size

Type of instruction

See general description of the types of instruction described in § 17.

Exam

Exams