Doctor of Computer Science

Concentration in Enterprise Information Systems

The Doctor of Computer Science – Enterprise Information Systems program at Colorado Technical University is designed to develop leaders in designing, implementing and managing large-scale systems in their chosen profession.

Program Outcomes

  • Attain familiarity with the body of knowledge in current enterprise information systems.
  • Become a familiar with models such as CMMI and the Baldridge Process.
  • Effectively communicate technical material to non-technical decision makers.
  • Effectively manage IT implementation process, testing and user training.
  • Predict future trends through effective research using qualitative and quantitative methods.
  • Contribute to the enterprise information systems literature via literature reviews, practitioner articles and research articles.
Each year of the DCS-EIS program is designed to provide candidates with the theoretical, research and application capabilities necessary to pursue a successful career in their chosen field. The organization of each year is described below.

Year 1: The Foundation

The beginning of the program is all about research. Each student will spend the first year learning about analysis and design from a user perspective while forming the ability to think critically and creatively. This experience will enable the student to develop an enterprise information system designed to improve business processes.

Year 2: Acquisition of Knowledge

Once the foundation is in place, year two is where the student chooses an area of specialization and gains an in-depth knowledge of four common areas: strategy, structure, requirements engineering, and decision support. This deeper level of understanding will result in an industry white paper and a proposal for research to be conducted in the third year.

Year 3: Leadership and Professional Advancement

The final year of the program involves developing a formal implementation program, taking into consideration budget, training and testing and developing a critical path to completion, anticipating and planning for the future. The deliverable in year three is an applied research project, to be submitted to an academic journal.

The DCS-EIS program includes twelve 5-credit classes, one per quarter for three years. These are taught using the Professional Learning Model™ in an executive format. Each combines an active online component with an intensive residential session, lasting four days at our Colorado Springs campus. These are graded classes, and you must maintain and average of 3.3 out of a possible 4.0 in these classes.

There are also 12 Research and Writing (R&W) courses. A student takes one R&W course in conjunction with one core course per quarter. There are two options in the R&W curriculum: journal and dissertation. The journal option produces four projects (i.e. literature review, research proposal, a publishable quality practitioner article, and a publishable quality academic article) during the program. The dissertation option is the more traditional in-depth research endeavor that has both the former two projects plus the completion of the dissertation. These are independent study with the assistance of a faculty mentor. Each project must receive a grade of "satisfactory" in order to complete the degree.

Doctor of Computer Science in Enterprise Information Systems Course List


Course Title Hours
CS817 Foundations of EIS 5
CS801 Research and Writing I 3
CS802 Qualitative Analysis 5
CS806 Research and Writing II 3
CS805 Research Methods 5
CS811 Research and Writing III 3
CS810 Quantitative Analysis 5
CS816 Research and Writing IV 3
CS820 Usability and Interaction 5
CS821 Research and Writing V 3
CS822 Systems Analysis and Design 5
CS826 Research and Writing VI 3
CS827 EIS Governance 5
CS831 Research and Writing VII 3
CS832 Business Alignment & Strategy IS 5
CS836 Research and Writing VIII 3
CS842 Business Intelligence 5
CS841 Research and Writing IX 3
CS847 Enterprise Systems Architecture Planning 5
CS846 Research and Writing X 3
CS852 Information Assurance 5
CS851 Research and Writing XI 3
CS855 Futuring and Innovation 5
CS856 Research and Writing XII 3
View all degrees available in the School of Information Technology