Postgraduate - Area of study Business intelligence

Business intelligence professionals use information systems to improve the processes and outcomes of human decision-making. Areas covered include personal decision support systems, business intelligence systems, executive information systems, online analytical processing systems, group decision support systems, data warehousing, customer relationship management systems, financial modelling and computer modelling for business systems.

The goal of the business intelligence professional specialisation is to prepare students for professional practice in supporting management decision-making using IT. Depending on their qualifications and experience prior to graduate study and the nature of their elective study, graduates could be employed in a variety of roles ranging from entry-level business intelligence positions through to senior management consulting.

In addition to entry-level system analyst/programmer knowledge and skills, and the desirable generic graduate attributes identified by the University, graduates should be able to:

• select an appropriate BI approach for a given business problem
• plan the business intelligence strategy of an organisation
• develop personal decision support systems
• use models for evidence based decision making
• design multidimensional data bases
• design and implement enterprise wide reporting systems
• design and prototype data warehouses and data marts.

Graduates of this specialisation will also have a strong theoretical knowledge of decision support so that they can adapt quickly to changes in technology and methodology.