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Chapters

This textbook is organized into 25 chapters covering 580 concepts from the learning graph.

Chapter Overview

Part I — Foundations

  1. Foundations of Information Systems — Build the shared vocabulary used in every later chapter — what a system is, what data is, what an organization is, and how IS connects them.
  2. The Role of IS in Organizations — Connect IS to organizational outcomes: how IS creates value, who runs it, what frameworks govern it (COBIT, ITIL), and what ethical responsibilities the profession carries.
  3. Information Systems Architecture — Give students an architectural mental model so that every later technical chapter (data, cloud, security, AI) lands in the right architectural slot.

Part II — Building Information Systems

  1. Application Development for IS — Walk students through how applications get built, bought, or rented in practice — the methodologies, the lifecycle, and the make-or-buy decision.
  2. Business Process Management — Show that IS work is process work: before you can automate or analyze, you must model the process the system serves.

Part III — Data, Information, and Analytics

  1. Data Management Foundations: Modeling, SQL, and Transactions — Give students the working SQL and modeling skills the rest of the book — and the rest of their career — assumes.
  2. Modern Databases, Warehousing, and Lakehouses — Move students past 'database = MySQL' into the polyglot reality: which store fits which workload, and why.
  3. Data Governance and Quality — Make explicit what most students absorb implicitly: data has owners, rules, and a lifecycle, and IS organizations enforce them.
  4. Business Intelligence and Analytics — Connect data to decisions: how raw operational data becomes the dashboard an executive looks at every Monday morning.

Part IV — Designing and Operating Systems

  1. Systems Analysis and Design — Show students how a vague business request becomes a buildable specification — the discipline that distinguishes an IS professional from a generalist coder.
  2. Networks and Telecommunications for Business — Equip students to manage networks, not engineer them — the procurement, capacity, and SLA decisions IS leaders actually make.
  3. Cloud Computing and Infrastructure — Establish cloud literacy now, because every later chapter (security, AI, data) assumes it.
  4. Enterprise Systems — Show that most IS work in practice is integrating, configuring, and governing packaged enterprise systems — not building from scratch.

Part V — Security, Compliance, and Project Delivery

  1. Security of Information Assets — Build a working security foundation that maps to the ABET CAC criterion on security of information assets — and that the AI-Security chapter will later extend.
  2. Privacy, Compliance, and Regulation — Make students fluent in the compliance vocabulary every IS organization runs on — distinct from security, but tightly coupled to it.
  3. IS Project Management — Equip students to plan and run IS projects — one of the named ABET CAC criterion areas and a daily reality for every IS graduate.
  4. IT Service Management and Operations — Show students how IS keeps the lights on after a system ships — the operational discipline that distinguishes a project from a service.
  5. Human-Computer Interaction and Emerging Topics — Round out the operational picture with how systems present to humans, and preview the topics students will hear about in their first jobs.

Part VI — AI in Information Systems

  1. AI in Information Systems — Lay the AI foundation that the next four chapters all build on — vocabulary, capabilities, and the IS organization's role in adopting AI.
  2. Responsible and Ethical Use of AI — Make responsible AI concrete: students leave able to apply NIST AI RMF and ISO/IEC 42001 to a proposed AI feature.
  3. AI Law, Regulation, and Compliance — Equip students to participate credibly in the AI compliance conversations every IS organization is now having.
  4. AI and Information Security — Extend the Security chapter with the new attack surface AI has opened — and the new defensive tools AI provides.
  5. AI Productivity Impact on IS Operations — Equip students for the workplace they're entering — every IS function is being reshaped by AI on a quarterly timeline.

Part VII — The Future IS Stack

  1. Knowledge Graphs and the Enterprise Knowledge Graph — Position the EKG as the semantic backbone of the AI-ready enterprise — the layer that unifies siloed application data into something humans and AI agents can both query.
  2. The Enterprise Nervous System and the AI-Native Organization — End the book by tying the AI thread and the EKG thread together into a single architectural vision the student can argue for in a job interview.

How to Use This Textbook

Chapters are sequenced so that every concept's prerequisites appear in earlier chapters. Read in order, or jump into a specific chapter and use the Prerequisites section at the top to find any background material you need.

Each chapter lists the concepts it covers from the learning graph. Use the learning graph viewer to explore how the concepts connect across the entire course.

Note: Each chapter index includes the concepts covered. Make sure to complete prerequisite chapters before moving to advanced chapters.