Professional Institutions

• The role of professional institutions and their characteristics: established by Charter, self-governing, controlling entry to the profession and maintaining discipline; reservation of title and reservation of function. Some familiarity with the best-known professional institutions (law, medicine, engineering, computing and accounting).

Professional codes of ethics

• Professional codes of Conduct and Practice. Their strengths and weaknesses.
• Ethics in Information Systems. Duty of care. Standard of accountability for IS professiionals (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002). Care for public safety. Continuing professional development. Consultancy and calculation of chargeout rate.

Organisations and their Structure

• Limited companies, Partnership and sole trader and the roles of directors and members; the advantages of limited company status for commercial organisations.
• The concept of delegation and specialisation. Management structures: structure by function, by product, and by region. Professionals in the organisation, Theory of needs (Maslow, McClelland), Belbin's team roles.

The Legal System

• Historical evolution - Brehon law, Common law, Constitution of Ireland and Courts specific Articles, Executive, Legislature, Judiciary and the separation of powers; Structure and hierarchy of Irish Courts system.
• Vocabulary - (e.g., Writ, Statutory Instrument, Bill, Act, law, court, justice, judge, jury, plaintiff, defendant, solicitor, barrister, DPP, tort, civil, criminal, litigation, arbitration);
• Irish Statute Book; Irish Courts in action - Examples of Court cases and seminal judgments in the ICT sector.
• Legal Acts that impact the IS professional
• Defamation Act, 1961, 2009; Data Protection Act, 1988, 2003; EU Council Directive on Display Screen Equipment, 1990; Criminal Damage Act, 1991; Patents Act, 1992; Trademarks Act, 1996; Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997; Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, 1998; Intellectual Property Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1998; Employment Equality Act, 1998; Health and Safety Act, 1998; Copyright and Related Rights
• Act, 2000; Electronic CommerceAct, 2000; Data Protection (Amendment) Act, 2003; Human Rights Act, 2003.
• The Irish Statute Book - Office of Attorney General. Data Protection in the Telecommunications Sector (Data Protection and Privacy Regulations, 2003)
• Relevant provisions (i.e. those relating to liability) of these Acts. EC Directives on systems. The nature of contracts. Escrow.
• Intellectual Property
• The concept of intellectual property; software, documentation and designs as intellectual property. Intellectual property ownership. The mechanisms available to protect intellectual property. International Copyright, Relevant Acts that relate to the protection of intellectual property.

Standards

International and de facto standards. The role of professional institutions in defining standards

This module can be delivered either through standard delivery or blended delivery. In standard delivery this module is delivered through a series of lectures with associated practical assignments. In blended delivery this module is delivered through a series of live and recorded lectures with associated laboratory work and practical assignments. Both blended and standard delivery have the same overall number of teaching and self-directed learning hours.

Module Content & Assessment

Start date: September 2024

Contact school.cs@tudublin.ie for further information.

EU students: €470

Non-EU students: Contact international.city@tudublin.ie for more details.