Leveraging Alumni and Business Community Relations to Assess the Information Systems Curriculum

A recent Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (2006) task force called for increased interaction between business schools and the business community to identify essential skill sets and help with the curriculum-management process. An information systems curriculum-assessment study solicited input from recent alumni working in the business community who had demonstrated a solid grasp of the curriculum. An analysis of the responses indicates that communications and teamwork skills are perceived as highly important to the business community. Qualitative and statistical analyses show that the business community perceives value in curriculum content that emphasizes managerial and systems development topics and covers technical topics broadly rather than deeply.