Syllabus

Title
2281 Value-based System Engineering (DigEcon)/Innovation Management (InfSys)
Instructors
Univ.Prof. Dr. Sarah Spiekermann-Hoff
Contact details
Type
PI
Weekly hours
2
Language of instruction
Englisch
Registration
10/11/21 to 10/18/21
Registration via LPIS
Notes to the course
This class is only offered in winter semesters.
Dates
Day Date Time Room
Monday 10/25/21 02:00 PM - 04:30 PM Online-Einheit
Monday 11/08/21 02:00 PM - 04:30 PM Online-Einheit
Monday 11/15/21 02:00 PM - 04:30 PM Online-Einheit
Monday 11/22/21 02:00 PM - 04:30 PM Online-Einheit
Monday 11/29/21 02:00 PM - 04:30 PM Online-Einheit
Monday 12/06/21 02:00 PM - 04:30 PM Online-Einheit
Monday 12/20/21 02:00 PM - 04:30 PM Online-Einheit
Monday 01/10/22 02:00 PM - 04:30 PM Online-Einheit
Saturday 01/22/22 11:00 AM - 02:00 PM D5.0.001
Contents

This transdisciplinary course teaches students the essential elements of a Value-based Engineering for sustainable IT system design. Value-based Engineering is an “Ethics-by-Design” methodology allowing companies to understand the social implications of their IT Innovations and to pin down the true human challenges arising from their business for direct as well as indirect stakeholders.

Value-based Engineering as taught in this course helps companies’ innovation and engineering teams to formulate an ethically aligned value strategy for their business as well as their IT infrastructure. Concrete approaches for the identification of technical and organizational system design requirements are presented and applied in class in the form of a case-study exercise and homework.

The goal of the course as a whole is to give students a first theoretical as well as practical grasp of what it would mean to become an innovation ‘value-expert’ for IT-driven companies.  In this vein, the course sets the scene by teaching students first about the wider context of Value-based Engineering in today’s innovation management landscape. Equally it provides them with an insight into the philosophical underpinnings of value-theory and moral philosophy as far as this is relevant for the professional engagement in Value-based Engineering.

Learning outcomes

- a deep insight into today's technology innovation space

- an understanding of human and social values and their ontology

- the skill to explore values with the help of ethical theories and derive a proper value proposition for a company

- the know-how to translate value principles into engineering practice

- some modeling tools to support value-based engineering

- enhancement of linguistic ability

Attendance requirements

Students are required to attend ideally all lecture meetings taking place for this class.

Teaching/learning method(s)

This course is done in a flip-teaching mode. So students are coming to class in a prepared way: They need to watch the lecture upfront online and receive a script for it. Alternatively, they may listen to the lecture in podcast-format. Students come to class in order to deepen the lecture material through in-class exercises and discussions. The in-class exercises and feedbacks are essential to do well in the exam.

Assessment

30% homework

50% final exam

20% in-class group work submission and participation

Readings
1 Author: Sarah Spiekermann
Title:

Ethical IT-Innovation - A Value-based System Design Approach


Publisher: Taylor & Francis CRC Press
Year: 2016
Content relevant for class examination: Yes
Recommendation: Strongly recommended (but no absolute necessity for purchase)
Type: Book
2 Author: Christensen, C. M., M. E. Raynor and R. McDonald
Title:

What is disruptive information?


Publisher: Harvard Business Review
Year: 2015
Type: Journal
3 Author: Tim Brown
Title:

Design Thinking


Publisher: Harvard Business Review
Year: 2008
4 Author: Sarah Spiekermann
Title:

Digitale Ethik - Ein Wertesystem für das 21. Jahrhundert


Publisher: Droemer
Year: 2019
Content relevant for class examination: Yes
Recommendation: Strongly recommended (but no absolute necessity for purchase)
Type: Book
Availability of lecturer(s)

office hours on appointment, please contact mis-sek@wu.ac.at

Last edited: 2021-10-20



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