Communication Skills for
Information System Students

Lech J. Janczewski
The University of Auckland, New Zealand

[email protected]

 

Abstract

Many polls conducted in the field of Information Technology indicate that communication skills rate very high on the agenda of IT employers. At the University of Auckland, over the years we had noticed that and that formed the basis for creating a university course, which would be a sort of "total package", exposing students to the real world of systems design. The major objective of the students who enrol in this course is to develop a real IT application, for a real business organisation, in an environment resembling the real working conditions of a systems developer. Communication skills’ training is deeply embedded in the programme. Despite general opinion that the course is the most demanding, overwhelming majority of students vote each year that this course was the best they have had at the university and that they had learnt a lot.

Keywords: communication skills, information systems curriculum, information system project.