Teaching i* Alongside a Contrasting Modeling Framework

We briefly describe the design of a course on “Systems Analysis and Process Innovation”, focusing especially on its project assignments. Students are introduced to process modeling and data modeling, followed by i* and Value Network modeling. In their project assignments, students apply these modeling techniques to real organizational settings to analyze an as-is situation and to explore to-be alternatives. A distinctive feature in the design of the project assignments is that student teams split into 2 sub-teams in which each sub-team uses a different modeling technique to analyze the same domain setting. After each sub-team has separately completed its own work, the two sub-teams then compare their results for the domain problem setting, and more importantly, contrast the strengths and limitations of the two modeling approaches based on their project experience.