Completion of the MS program requires a minimum of 30 approved graduate credits (10 courses). To provide a common background in the fundamentals of information systems, four core courses are required of all students. Six elective courses may be within an emphasis area or according to students' professional interests.

• Four core courses (12 credits) are required of all IS graduates:
  • INFS 612   Principles and Practices of Communication Networks
  • INFS 614   Database Management
  • INFS 622   Information Systems Analysis and Design
  • ISA 562     Information Security Theory and Practice
  
  For students taking the emphasis area and/or Graduate Certificate in software engineering, SWE 620 should be substituted for INFS 622.
  
  The core courses constitute the technical body of knowledge for the program. The elective courses are organized into the following emphasis areas: database management, data mining, electronic commerce, software engineering, knowledge management, and information security and assurance.
  
• Elective courses (18 credits). In addition to the core courses taken as part of the MS-ISYS curriculum, students may choose an emphasis within the program by taking six courses from one of the emphasis areas listed below. Students may also choose electives spanning several emphasis areas; they may also plan their electives so as to obtain certificates offered by the department. A list of approved electives is given within emphasis areas and by graduate program. A full list of pre-approved electives is available from the department's web site. Special courses may be used as electives with prior approval of the student's academic advisor and the graduate coordinator.

  Students, with the consent of a faculty sponsor and faculty advisor, may also elect courses in individualized study, special topics, or a 6-credit thesis, which is primarily intended for students planning to pursue a PhD in information technology with a concentration in information systems.

  Listed below are the emphasis areas and the approved elective courses in each area.

  • Database Management
    1. INFS 623   Classical and Web Information Retrieval
    2. INFS 740   Database Programming for the World Wide Web
    3. INFS 760   Advanced Database Management
    4. INFS 772   Intelligent Agents and the Semantic Web
    5. INFS 796   Directed reading in Information Technology
    6. ISA 765     Database and Distributed Systems Security
  • Data Mining and Data Warehousing
    1. CS 780      Data Mining in Multimedia Databases
    2. CS 782      Machine Learning
    3. INFS 623   Classical and Web Information Retrieval
    4. INFS 755   Data Mining
    5. INFS 785   Data Mining for Homeland Security
    6. INFS 795   Special Topics in Data Mining Applications
    7. INFS 796   Directed readings in Information Technology
  • Electronic Commerce
    1. INFS 640   Introduction to Electronic Commerce
    2. INFS 770   Knowledge Management for E-Business
    3. INFS 772   Intelligent Agents and the Semantic Web
    4. INFS 774   Enterprise Architecture>
    5. INFS 790   Information Systems Policy and Administration
    6. INFS 796   Directed readings in Information Technology
    7. ISA 656     Network Security
    8. ISA 767     Secure Electronic Commerce
  • Software Engineering
    1. SWE 619   Object-Oriented Software Specification and Construction
    2. SWE 621   Software Modeling and Architectural Design
    3. SWE 622   Distributed Software Engineering
    4. SWE 625   Software Project Management
    5. SWE 632   User Interface Design and Development
    6. SWE 637   Software Testing
    7. SWE 642   Software Engineering for the World Wide Web
    8. SWE 721   Reusable Software Architecture
    9. SWE 727   Quality of Service for Software Architecture
    10. SWE 797   Advanced Topics in Software Engineering
  • Knowledge Management
    1. CS 580      Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
    2. CS 681      Expert Systems
    3. CS 785      Knowledge Acquisition
    4. INFS 623   Classical and Web Information Retrieval
    5. INFS 650   Development Frameworks for Information System Applications
    6. INFS 740   Database Programming for the World Wide Web
    7. INFS 755   Data Warehousing and Mining
    8. INFS 770   Knowledge Management for E-Business
    9. INFS 772   Intelligent Agents and the Semantic Web
    10. INFS 774   Enterprise Architecture>
    11. INFS 790   Information Systems Policy and Administration
    12. INFS 796   Directed readings in Information Technology
  • Information Security and Assurance
    1. ISA 563     Fundamentals of Systems Programming
    2. ISA 640     Programming Language Security
    3. ISA 652     Security Audit and Compliance Testing
    4. ISA 656     Network Security
    5. ISA 673     Operating Systems Security
    6. ISA 674     Intrusion Detection
    7. ISA 681     Secure Software Design
    8. ISA 763     Security Protocol Analysis
    9. ISA 764     Security Experimentation
    10. ISA 765     Database and Distributed Systems Security
    11. ISA 767     Secure Electronic Commerce
    12. ISA 785     Research in Digital Forensics
    13. ISA 796     Directed Readings in Information Security

  For Further Information

  Additional information on the program is available from the MSIS Student Advisor (csadmin@cs.gmu.edu)