BSc Information Technology Management for Business

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme.

The  Manchester Bursary  is available to UK students registered on an undergraduate degree course at Alliance MBS who have had a full financial assessment carried out by Student Finance England.

In addition, Alliance MBS will award a range of  Social Responsibility Scholarships  to UK and international/EU students.

These awards are worth £2,000 per year across three years of study. You must achieve AAA at A-level (or equivalent qualification) and be able to demonstrate a significant contribution and commitment to social responsibility.

The School will also award a number of  International Stellar Scholarships  to international students achieving AAA at A-level (or equivalent qualification). Applicants who exceed AAA and/or have supplementary qualifications (such as EPQ) will receive additional consideration.

Additional eligibility criteria apply - please see our  scholarship pages  for full details.

Students should learn the concepts, models and techniques underpinning the IT architecture discipline and the importance of IT architecture and the role of IT Architects in organisations. Students should also 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 should also be gained. The course has been developed in partnership with IBM-UK and utilises problem-based learning techniques and case studies. 

Programme restrictions: core for ITMB/ITMB Specialism.

Students should learn the concepts, models and techniques underpinning the IT architecture discipline and the importance of IT architecture and the role of IT Architects in organisations. Students should also 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 should also be gained. The course has been developed in partnership with IBM-UK and utilises problem-based learning techniques and case studies.

Problem solving, professional IT Architecture, and digital skills will be gained by the application of Business IT Architecture models and techniques via problem-based learning methods. 
 

- Introduction to IT Architecture

- IT Architecture Processes, Activities and Roles

- Qualities & Constraints in IT Architecture

- IT Architecture Development: Methods, Models and Techniques

- IT Architecture in Practice (Case Study Workshop)

- Advanced Topics in IT Architecture 

A mixture of learning processes is adopted. These include lectures, class activities and case study workshop activities. They are supported by material on the e-learning system such as videos, research papers, and links to practical problem-solving articles.

Scheduled activity hours

Lectures - 20 hours

Practical classes & workshops - 6 hours

Tutorials - 4 hours

Independent study hours - 70 hours

Notional hours of Learning (Total Study Hours) - 100 hours 

Describe and evaluate key IT Architecture modelling techniques

Understand the foundational concepts of IT architecture

Describe and evaluate the implications of IT architecture design decisions in information systems

Critically apply IT architecture concepts to develop practical solutions to IT requirements

Describe and evaluate the correlations between IT architectures and Business Processes

Understand and assess state-of-the-art trends in IT architecture

Demonstrate an understanding of the role and importance of IT Architectures, understand the principles and objectives of IT Architecture Development

Demonstrate an understanding of the trade-offs between practical operational deployment vs. functional requirements

Develop IT architectures based on a set of requirements

Critically understand and assess state-of-the-art trends in IT architecture

Be able to propose and justify the use of IT Architectures to address business issues

Demonstrate competence in IT Architecture design

Use IT Architecture Frameworks to support the practical case assignments in the module

Design IT architecture models and diagrams

Apply IT Architecture methods in projects.

Demonstrate systems design and modelling skills

Demonstrate communication skills

Demonstrate problem analysis and solving skills

Demonstrate the application of IT Architecture theory to solve practical problems

Demonstrate teamwork skills

Demonstrate group presentation skills 

Formative assessment: Verbally during class exercises and groupwork interactions 

Group presentation (50%) 
Individual coursework (50%) 

- Informal advice and discussion during a lecture, seminar or workshop.

- Responses to student emails and questions from a member of staff including feedback provided to a group via an online discussion forum.

- Specific course related feedback sessions.

- Written and/or verbal comments on assessed or non-assessed coursework.

- Written and/or verbal comments after students have given a group or individual presentation.

Recommended reading

Martina Seidl · Marion Scholz Christian Huemer · Gerti Kappel: UML @ Classroom - An Introduction to Object-Oriented Modelling (Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science) Springer; 2015.

Mitra, Tilak: Practical software architecture: moving from system context to deployment, IBM Press, 2016.

Further Reading:

Len Bass, Paul Clements, Rick Kazman: Software Architecture in Practice, 4th Edition - SEI series in software engineering, Addison-Wesley Professional, 2021

Neal Ford: Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach, O’Reilly, 2020

James Serra: Deciphering data architectures: choosing between a modern data warehouse, data fabric, data, data lakehouse, and data mesh, O'Reilly Media, 2024.

Marc Lankhorst: Enterprise Architecture at Work: Modelling, Communication and Analysis (The Enterprise Engineering Series), 4th edition Springer, 2017.

Humberto Cervantes, Rick Kazman Designing Software Architectures: A Practical Approach (SEI Series in Software Engineering), Addison-Wesley Professional; 2nd edition (2024)

Ian Gorton: Essential Software Architecture, 2nd Edition Springer-Verlag, 2011. 

Programme restrictions: core for ITMB/ITMB Specialism.
Peer Assessment: To ensure that all group members will make a significant contribution to the assignment, marks within student groups can differ based on the results of a peer assessment between group members (individual contribution sheet is attached).

For Academic Year 2023/24

Updated: March 2023

Approved by: March UG Committee