Fundamentals of Business Informatics

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The teaching content of the individual knowledge modules is outlined below.

1. Fundamentals of economics and financial management

• Transactions, markets and market mechanisms
• Galler management model
• Roles and tasks of the operational functional areas
• Internal and external accounting
• Ratios and ratio systems: ratio-based annual financial statement analysis
• Investment accounting

2. IT-Law

• IT contract law: types of contracts and associated legal obligations and risks
• Basics of data protection law
• Protection of intellectual property
• Legal pitfalls, especially patent and liability law, in jurisdictions outside the EU
• Typical concrete issues: licensing of software, code and content, protection against contractual partners and liability against third parties

3. Business Process Management

• Fundamentals and concepts of business process management
• Business process modeling and analysis
• Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN)

4. IT basics and information systems

• Basics of IT: hardware, operating systems, networks, and computer and network security.
• Importance, types, components, technological structure as well as development trends of information systems
• Strategy and organization of value creation through information systems
• Planning, development and operation of information systems

5. Data management and database systems

• Fundamentals of data management and distributed information processing.
• Database fundamentals with emphasis on relational architecture
• ER modeling and implementation
• SQL queries
• Selected topics from the NoSQL area

6. Basics of programming / software development

• Basic concepts of structured and object-oriented programming.
• Basic elements and concepts of user interfaces
• Data persistence/serialization in files (txt/csv and xml) and directories
• Phases of software development

This course serves to train and ensure basic competencies of students in basic subjects of business informatics. It is required because the Master's degree program in Business Information Systems - Digital Transformation is a non-consecutive Master's degree program and the connectivity to Bachelor's degree programs in technology and business must be ensured. Depending on their previous education, students take those three knowledge modules in which they need to increase their level compared to their fellow students.

In the following knowledge modules 1 - 6, students are expected to have the following knowledge and skills in detail:

1. Fundamentals of economics and financial management

The students

• have knowledge of important basic economic concepts and fundamental economic models, in particular the relationships between companies and their environment.
• know the most important roles and tasks of the operational functional areas.
• know the basics of business performance and the essential tasks and tools of business management.
• can prepare a simple P&L and cash flow statement and understand a balance sheet.
• know the basic concepts of financial corporate management, in particular central key figures and key figure systems as well as selected control instruments.
• understand higher-level objectives and the financial management tasks within the framework of holistic corporate management.
• understand the essential tasks of investment accounting and corporate financing.

2. IT-Law

The students

• understand the importance of legal issues in connection with digital transformation.
• are familiar with important legal norms that are relevant for action in business informatics practice, particularly in the areas of the law of obligations, competition law, information security, data protection law and protection of intellectual property.
• are able to request professional support from lawyers if necessary and to cooperate constructively with them on a professional level.
• can name the most important legal issues for selected business model types. They can analyze simple facts from a legal perspective and identify the relevant legal issues in principle.

3. Business Process Management

The students

• know the basic concepts and tasks of business process management.
• know the different components of BPMN and can map business processes in BPMN 2.0.
• can recognize and comprehend interrelationships, interactions and interfaces between business processes.

4. IT-basics and information systems

The students

• understand the basic functionality and important components of hardware, operating systems and network technology and can explain their interaction.
• understand the importance of information security and the key concepts of basic IT protection.
• know the importance of information systems for the success of a company, in particular for supporting internal performance processes.
• have a basic understanding of different information systems including their components and interfaces.
• can explain how information systems are strategically planned in the company and what is important during the development of information systems and in ongoing operation.

5. Data management and database systems

The students

• know the basics of data management.
• know basic concepts of distributed information processing and basic relational database concepts.
• are able to create a corresponding ER model based on a description of a section of the corporate reality. Furthermore, they can transform the model into a relational data model, implement it and create queries in SQL.
• can understand why database architectures other than relational are used for specialized queries.

6. Basics of programming / software development

The students

• know the essential phases of software development and can plan simple software development tasks.
• understand basic concepts of structured and object-oriented programming.
• are able to use an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for programming and debugging.
• are able to solve simple real-world problems based on algorithmic thinking patterns.

• Independent development of the course content
• Independent completion of provided exercises
• Coaching (individually and/or in groups) by subject specialists

• Final written examinations in the knowledge modules taken (100%), whereby each partial examination must be passed positively and the grade is calculated from the average of the standardized points achieved per partial examination.

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The literature sources of the individual knowledge modules are cited below.

1. Fundamentals of economics and financial management

• Rüegg-Stürm, Johannes; Grand, Simon (2020): Das St. Galler Management-Modell: Management in einer komplexen Welt. 3. Aufl. Bern: Haupt Verlag.
• Thommen, Jean-Paul u.a. (2016): Allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre: Umfassende Einführung aus managementorientierter Sicht. 8., vollst. überarb. Aufl. 2017. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.
• Thommen, Jean-Paul u.a. (2017): Allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre Arbeitsbuch: Repetitionsfragen - Aufgaben - Lösungen. 8., vollst. überarb. Aufl. 2018. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.
• Vahs, Dietmar; Schäfer-Kunz, Jan (2015): Einführung in die Betriebswirtschaftslehre. 7. überarbeitete Auflage. Stuttgart: Schäffer Poeschel.

2. IT-Law

• Nitsch, Karl Wolfhart (2017): Informatikrecht: Grundlagen, Rechtsprechung und Fallbeispiele.

3. Business Process Management

• Allweyer, Thomas (2020): BPMN 2.0 - Business Process Model and Notation: Einführung in den Standard für die Geschäftsprozessmodellierung. 2. Edition. BoD – Books on Demand.
• Gadatsch, Andreas (2020): Grundkurs Geschäftsprozess-Management: Analyse, Modellierung, Optimierung und Controlling von Prozessen. 9., akt. u. erw. Aufl. 2020 edition. Wiesbaden Heidelberg: Springer Vieweg.

4. IT basics and information systems

• Alpar, Paul et al. (2019): Anwendungsorientierte Wirtschaftsinformatik. Strategische Planung, Entwicklung und Nutzung von Informationssystemen. 9., überarbeitete und aktualisierte Auflage. Wiesbaden: Springer Vieweg.
• Ernst, Hartmut; Schmidt, Jochen; Beneken, Gerd (2020): Grundkurs Informatik: Grundlagen und  Konzepte für die erfolgreiche IT-Praxis –  Eine umfassende,  praxisorientierte Einführung. 7. erw. u. akt. Aufl. Springer Vieweg.
• Laudon, Kenneth C.; Laudon, Jane P.; Schoder, Detlef (2016): Wirtschaftsinformatik: Eine Einführung. 3., vollständig überarbeitete Auflage. Hallbergmoos: Pearson Studium.
• Mertens, Peter, Freimut Bodendorf, Wolfgang König, Matthias Schumann, Thomas Hess, und Peter Buxmann (2017). Grundzüge der Wirtschaftsinformatik. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53362-8.

5. Data management and database systems

• Kleuker, Stephan. Grundkurs Datenbankentwicklung (2016). Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-12338-3.

6. Basics of programming / software development

• Ernesti, Johannes; Kaiser, Peter (2020): Python 3: Das umfassende Handbuch: Über 1.000 Seiten Sprachgrundlagen, Objektorientierte Programmierung und Beispielprogramme. 6. Edition. Rheinwerk Computing.

• Self-study
• Coaching (Online)