Executive SummaryIn the rapidly changing field of Information Systems, educational programs must be continually reevaluated and revised. This can be a daunting task. To make this process more manageable and to create programs that more accurately reflect the demands of the marketplace, a curriculum revision process is presented. As part of the curriculum revision process, a study was conducted to determine the expected skills and knowledge required for Information Systems professionals in three general staffing groups: programmers, analysts, and end-user support. A survey instrument was developed asking respondents to rate the importance of each knowledge/skill area three years from now for each of the staffing groups. The results show that Information Systems knowledge relating to the entire organization and overall business knowledge will be important with less emphasis on advanced IS applications. The so-called 'soft skills' such as teamwork and collaboration, planning and leading projects, presentation delivery, and writing skills will be critical for success in the Information Systems profession. More importance will be placed on web-based languages rather than more traditional languages such as COBOL. Based on the analysis, a skills matrix is presented that can be used as a foundation for developing courses. This paper also describes a curriculum development model that can be used as a guide for curriculum revision.

Winter 1995 Electronic communications, the ability to communicate computer to computer, has been greatly enhanced by the widespread installation of local area networks (LANs). These networks have the ability to connect users in limited geographical areas and, through linkages with other mainframe computers, national and international networks. Networks are changing the way organizations do business. A currently installed base of 6.1 million LAN users in 1993 with a predicted increase to 14.5 million by 1995 indicates that networking is a major technological trend for which business devotes major computer funding (Ashton, 1993). This trend, which has also been experienced in colleges and universities, allows the business world and the academic world to be linked together worldwide and has the potential to drastically change the way in which people work.As O' Brien (1990) and others have noted, the use of electronic communications is causing major changes in busi-

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Microcomputer usage has been investigated intensively in the United States and other developed countries. Igbaria, Pavri, and Huff (1989) looked at microcomputer use in the United States and reported that usage there was related to computer experience and anxiety about its impact. They also reported a significant relationship between computer training and microcomputer usage. In studying microcomputing in Taiwan, Igbaria (1992) reported that significant positive correlations exist between computer experience, user training, management support, and attitudes; and negative correlations exist between task complexity and microcomputer usage. In a study comparing end user computing in the United States and Israel, Ein-Dor and Segev (1992) found no statistical differences between types of software packages used, location of data, and mix of proprietary and commercial software packages. They suggested that organizational size, data processing resources, top management use, and user needs are closely associated with microcomputer usage; however, they noted the need to study personal attitudes and needs as reasons for adopting end-user computing.In the Republic of Ireland, where there are some 43,000 small businesses (less than 50 employees) (Young, 1990), the top 1,000 companies (by turnover) includes fewer than 100 firms with more than 500 employees. (Business and Finance Top 1000, 1993) A recent survey of Irish businesses (Williams, 1993) reported that 97 percent of organizations using computers use microcomputers, 9 percent use mainframes and 63 percent use minicomputers. In spite of the fact that many firms in Ireland start computing with microcomputers, Irish Computing reported that key issues in information systems management in Ireland are similar to those reported in other parts of the world. The 300 MIS managers surveyed reported that facilitating and managing end-user computing ranked ninth in the top ten issues (Liston, 1991).Surveys conducted semiannually by the Irish Computing Association show that ". . . users are much more computer literate and therefore take a much more active part in guiding and directing of all data processing activity" (Computer Users Survey, 1993, p. 44). Irish Computing also reports a move to local area networks in the national government. A recent This study reports the current status of microcomputer usage and focuses on the relationships between microcomputer usage and certain demographic variables, training, computer experience, user participation, organizational support, task characteristics, and perceptions about microcomputers. It investigates daily microcomputer usage through the following indicators: frequency of use, time of use, number of software packages used, and number of tasks for which the system was used.

Semantic patterns of words interact in a syntatlc structure. That is, in encoding, the meaning of any high-order constituent (phrase or sentence) Is created from the serial coding of the word elements involved.In decoding, the process is reversed; codings for higher-order constituents are some resolvable function of the component word codlings. Semantic 2 We are implicitly assuming that there exists a universal set of semantic features for any particular domain, bit that the pattern, or the representation of a given word In terms of these features, may be cultually unique. Thus, it is possible that, in contrast to our own culture, father is given a zero coding on the potentcy feature, In deference to the maternal uncle who receives a plus. While the feature is commonly relevant to both cultures, words may align themselves differently with respect to *t. Tables 3 and 4 respectively. In Table 4, feature codings apply to the speaker, or the left-hand member of the role-pair. Tables 3 and 4 about here SubjectsThe subjects for this study were 53 high school students from Thailand, studying in the United States for one year. There were 27 males and 26 females. The QuestionnaireThe construction of the questionnaire matrix was accomplished by writing (in Thai) the pronouns as column headings and the role-pairs as row headings. This resulted in a matrix of 60 x 14 cells. The Ss were asked to make a Judgment of each cell and to indicate with a plus, if that combination was appropriate ^congruent), with a minus if it was not appropriate (incongruent), and with a zaro if it was acceptable (permissible),The behavioral context for each combination was described as being that of "talking to," e.g., 'Father in talking to Son will use the pronoun to represent himself." Table 3 Coding Table 5. AnalysisThe Ss' data matrix was used as the criterion for Judging the adequacy of the predicted matrix and, hence, the adequacy of the a priori analysis.Comparisons between predicted and obtained matrices yielded a residual matrix.If the subjects' data is predicted perfectly, the residual matrix will be a zero matrix. On the other hand, if the data matrix is not predicted perfectly, the residual matrix will contain some "l's," proportional to the number of mistakes made in prediction. Plus l's and "-l's" are considered "patchable" errors, while a "90" arbitrarily designates an "unpatchable" error, A "+l" means that the combination was predicted as a "0" but Ss Judged it as a "+1"; a "-l" means that it was predicted as a "0" whereas Ss Judged it as a "-1"; a '90" means that It In order to compare the two models, the subjects' data matrix was factor analyzed by the Principal Cevpnnents method. Six factors (Varlmax rotation) were found to account for 94% of the total variance. Table 6 shows these six factors, together with their highest loadings.Insert Table 6