The MS in Information Systems (IS) bridges the gap between business and IT. Business organizations are most interested in serving customers with the best products and services. IT is a fast-moving area with many kinds of technologies, tools, and systems. Our MS-IS program emphasizes understanding of diverse technology trends, agile project management, digital transformation, analytics systems, and innovation with six major elective domains. Students can interact with local IT leaders at annual IS conferences and participate in prominent companies’ real-world projects. Our curriculum has students gain hands-on experience with the latest versions of SAP ERP systems used by Fortune 500 companies and beyond.

Degree Requirements

Major Elective Domains

Project Management and Business Analysis

This domain focuses on managing IT projects and determining requirements for IS. You learn how to plan and execute IT projects, understand end-user and organizational needs, and model appropriate systems functions for these needs. This domain is suitable to pursue the career of IT project manager or business/systems analyst.

Analytics-Driven Decision Making

This domain focuses on data management and system solutions for data-driven decision making. You learn advanced analytics concepts, tools, systems, and backend data management. This domain is suitable to pursue the career of enterprise data manager, business intelligence (BI) architect, or analytics solution specialist.

IT Governance and Legal Responsibilities

This domain focuses on governance and legal compliance for IS. You learn how to manage the processes of running IS operations effectively by assuring the stakeholders’ needs while complying any legal requirements and minimizing risks. This domain is suitable to pursue the career of IT director or IT auditor.

Data Management

This domain focuses on managing data with IS. You learn how to plan, develop and implement databases, data warehouse, data centers, and business intelligence (BI) systems. This domain is suitable to pursue the career of database manager or BI director.

Digital Innovation & Entrepreneurship

This domain focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship with IS. You learn how to define digitally-driven innovation and fostering entrepreneurship initiatives. This domain is suitable to pursue the career of digital manager or entrepreneur.

IT Leadership and Operations

This domain focuses on leadership for IS organizations. You learn the characteristics and essential quality of being an effective leader in the IS organization. This domain is suitable to pursue the career of IT director or CIO.

 

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

• Determine the main business impact from emerging trends in Information Systems (IS).
• Describe key outcomes in each of the five phases of a systems development life cycle.
• Explain key benefits and challenges of best practices in IS projects.
• Use diagrams for IS requirements and conceptual design specifications (e.g., context diagram, data flow diagram, use case diagram, entity relationship diagram), given a short business case.

Career Outcomes

92%of reporting program graduates were employed, continuing education, or not seeking employment within six months of graduation

$70,000median salary reported by program graduates six months after degree completion

Curriculum Requirements

Introductory Courses

No Introductory Course may be substituted for any other course at any level.

Introductory courses may be waived for any of the following conditions based on faculty review:

• The student has the appropriate course work to satisfy an Introductory Course based on an official transcript review by faculty and successful grades, typically B or better.
• The student has appropriate and verified professional experience to satisfy an Introductory Course which is demonstrated through successful completion of a GAE exam.
• If a Graduate Assessment Examination (GAE) is available for the Introductory Courses, upon successfully completion of a GAE, a waiver will be issued.

•  IT 403 Statistics and Data Analysis
•  IS 411 Introduction to Programming for Business Applications

 

Foundation Courses (6)

•  IS 421 Systems Analysis and Design
•  IS 430 Fundamentals of IT Project Management
•  IS 435 Organization Modeling for Digital Transformation
•  IS 451 Database Design for Information Systems (Formerly CSC 451)
•  IS 460 Enterprise Cloud Computing (Formerly Is 536)
•  IS 468 Enterprise Systems (Formerly Is 560)

 

Major Elective (5) (20 credit hours)

• Students take at least 3 courses from the same domain.
• Students take at least 2 500-level courses.
• Domains
  • Project Management and Business Analysis
  • Analytics-Driven Decision Making
  • IT Governance and Legal Responsibilities
  • Data Management
  • Digital Innovation & Entrepreneurship
  • IT Leadership and Operations

Elective Domain Course Lists

• Project Management and Business Analysis

•  IS 431 Digital Product Development and Management
•  IS 535 Information Technology Investment Financial Analysis
•  IS 556 Agile Enterprise Project Management
•  IS 570 Managing Change for Digital Transformation
•  IS 586 Customer Relationship Management Technologies (Formerly ECT 586)

• Analytics-Driven Decision Making

•  IS 436 Social Marketing and Social Networking Applications (Formerly ECT 436)
•  IS 452 Big Data and the Internet of Things (Iot)
•  IS 550 Enterprise Data Management
•  IS 574 Business Intelligence and Analytics Systems
•  DSC 423 Data Analysis and Regression
•  DSC 465 Data Visualization

• IT Governance and Legal Responsibilities

•  CSEC 440 Information Security Management (Formerly CNS 440)
•  IS 444 IT Auditing
•  IS 482 Legal Responsibilities in Information Technology
•  IS 486 Cybersecurity Law
•  IS 505 Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Theories and Strategies
•  IS 506 Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Management and Tactics
•  IS 511 Social Issues of Computing
•  IS 568 It Governance

• Data Management

•  IS 549 Data Warehousing
•  IS 550 Enterprise Data Management
•  CSC 452 Database Programming
•  CSC 454 Database Administration and Management

• Digital Transformation & Entrepreneurship

•  IS 431 Digital Product Development and Management
•  IS 478 Information Technology Consulting
•  IS 531 Digital Innovation Strategies, Processes and Tools
•  IS 580 Technology Entrepreneurship

Open Elective

Students must complete 4 credit hours from CDM Open Elective Course chosen from any: CSC, CSEC, DSC, ECT, GAM, GPH, HCI, HIT, IS, IT, NET, PM, or SE course in the 421-699 range qualifies.

Capstone Options

Students have the option of completing either (a) IS577 (Information Systems capstone course), (b) a Graduate Internship (4 credits), (c) two quarters of CSC500 (a Research Colloquium course), (d) IS696 (a Master's Project course), or (e) a Master’s Thesis.

Capstone Options

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Graduate Internship

 

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Research Options

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Degree Requirements

Students in this degree program must meet the following requirements:

• Complete a minimum of 52 graduate credit hours in addition to any required introductory courses of the designated degree program.
• Complete all graduate courses and requirements listed in the designated degree program.
• Earn a grade of C- or better in all courses of the designated degree program.
• Maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher.
• Students pursuing a second (or more) graduate degree may not double count or retake any course that applied toward the completion of a prior graduate degree. If a required course in the second degree was already completed and applied toward a previous degree, the student must meet with a faculty advisor to discuss a new course to be completed and substituted in the new degree. This rule also applies to cross-listed courses, which are considered to be the same course but offered under different subjects.
• Students pursuing a second master's degree must complete a minimum of 52 graduate credit hours beyond their first designated degree program in addition to any required introductory courses in their second designated degree program.

Students with a GPA of 3.9 or higher will graduate with distinction.

For DePaul's policy on repeat graduate courses and a complete list of academic policies see the DePaul Graduate Handbook in the Course Catalog.