ACIT5920 Master's Thesis, Phase 2 Course description

MT2 is dedicated to the project work, for example, development, data collection and analysis, depending on the specific projects. In addition to a written report, project status and the results achieved will be presented orally at an internal mini-conference affiliated with the programme.

Master¿s Thesis, Long - MT1 (Phase 1) must have been passed before the student can start work with MT2.

A student who has completed this course should have the following learning outcomes, defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

On successful completion of this course the student:

• has specialized knowledge on the specific areas of their Master thesis

Skills

On successful completion of this course the student:

• can plan and carry out limited research or development projects
• can identify types and scopes of results which are required to ensure the claims and conclusions are scientifically valid
• can reflect on the decisions made and their consequences for the project

General competence

On successful completion of this course the student:

• can carry out projects according to a defined project plan
• can carry out projects on the basis of a problem statement and defined research questions
• can carry out comprehensive independent study

The student should have the following outcomes upon completing the course:

Knowledge

Upon successful completion of the course, the student:

• have advanced knowledge of how system administration and operations facilitate organizations
• have advanced knowledge of the terms and terminology used when system administration interfaces with an organization
• have advanced knowledge of processes applied to system administration in order to facilitate requests from other parts of an organization
• have deep knowledge of how an IT infrastructure is organized and what components it traditionally comprises of
• have a good understanding of the support architecture of an IT infrastructure, such as backup, issue tracking and configuration management

Skills

Upon successful completion of the course, the student:

• can analyze an IT infrastructure with regard to its components and their purpose
• can apply feature analysis in order to rank alternative components relative to their purpose
• can organize the flow of tasks in an operations team
• can propose ways to measure the performance of an operations team
• can leverage IaaS (cloud computing and virtual infrastructures) to provide systems, network and storage components to users
• can utilize infrastructure support services in order to leverage system deployment to users

General competence

Upon successful completion of the course, the student should:

• can discuss the role of system administration in an organization and society at large
• can analyze how operations can interface with the rest of an organization in order to improve overall proficiency

The project plan, literature study, problem statement and research questions from MT1 (Phase 1) forms the basis for MT2. The work is carried out under the guidance of the supervisor appointed at the start of MT1.

None.

• A suitable and qualified document with a recommended 5000 words or more, with systematically documented research, including research methodology, project results and ethical considerations, according to the project plan from Phase I.
• Individual presentation of results at the mini-conference. Both exams must be passed in order to pass the course.

The oral presentation cannot be appealed.

All aids are permitted.

This course provides an overview over the most common services and components found in IT infrastructures in medium- to enterprise sized organizations and businesses. The services are focused around the internal functioning of the IT department such as backup, logging and configuration management as well as inventory and directory systems. The course

is organized around weekly practical labs and lectures that complement each other. The student will get hands-on experience with the technologies as well as a holistic perspective on IT infrastructures.

The course focuses on a broad and rigorous approach necessary to do reliable research within the area of analysis and offers a deeper theoretical understanding that can supplement and be leveraged alongside the knowledge and skills from the previous two specialization courses.

The course provides a perfect basis for any person who wants to venture into this area. It is also a springboard for functional analysis and operator algebras.