No abstract

Enrollment in MIS degree programs has been dropping significantly since 2001. Some of the reasons for this decline include the perceived lack of jobs for MIS graduates, confusion over the variety of computing degree programs, disinterest in MIS careers, and MIS programs which fail to prepare students adequately for careers in MIS. This paper looks at each of these potential causes for the enrollment decline and offers suggestions to reverse this trend. Given the lack of material support for the first three potential causes of the decline in enrollment, the bulk of this research is devoted to investigating the deficiencies of the MIS program from the employer's perspective.We will conduct a survey which will identify which skills MIS graduates are lacking from the employer's point of view and what impact this skills gap has on the recruitment practices of the employers. Our belief is that once employers begin actively recruiting for MIS graduates, the misperceptions of the job prospects for MIS graduates by potential students will likewise diminish and enrollment in the programs which respond to industries' needs will subsequently rebound.

No abstract

This article introduces a methodology for developing applications incorporating components of Agile development methods with the traditional software development life cycle (SDLC), a.k.a. the ''waterfall'' model of software development. We look at the causes for failure of software development projects and propose steps in the development process to address many of the root causes of these failures (it would be implausible to state that any development methodology could eliminate the risk of failure). We also provide a critical review of Agile principles and the traditional SDLC. The steps of the new methodology are then described with rationalization for their necessity.