SAQA

All qualifications and part qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework are public property. Thus the only payment that can be made for them is for service and reproduction. It is illegal to sell this material for profit. If the material is reproduced or quoted, the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) should be acknowledged as the source.

SOUTH AFRICAN QUALIFICATIONS AUTHORITY

REGISTERED QUALIFICATION THAT HAS PASSED THE END DATE:

Bachelor of Technology: Professional Practice: IT

SAQA QUAL ID	QUALIFICATION TITLE
16807	Bachelor of Technology: Professional Practice: IT
ORIGINATOR
Committee of Technikon Principals
PRIMARY OR DELEGATED QUALITY ASSURANCE FUNCTIONARY			NQF SUB-FRAMEWORK
Was CHE until Last Date for Achievement			HEQSF - Higher Education Qualifications Sub-framework
QUALIFICATION TYPE	FIELD		SUBFIELD
B Tech	Field 10 - Physical, Mathematical, Computer and Life Sciences		Information Technology and Computer Sciences
ABET BAND	MINIMUM CREDITS	PRE-2009 NQF LEVEL	NQF LEVEL	QUAL CLASS
Undefined	480	Level 7	Level TBA: Pre-2009 was L7	Regular-Provider-ELOAC
REGISTRATION STATUS		SAQA DECISION NUMBER	REGISTRATION START DATE	REGISTRATION END DATE
Passed the End Date - Status was "Registered"		SAQA 9900/00	2003-07-01	2006-06-30
LAST DATE FOR ENROLMENT		LAST DATE FOR ACHIEVEMENT
2007-06-30		2012-06-30

In all of the tables in this document, both the pre-2009 NQF Level and the NQF Level is shown. In the text (purpose statements, qualification rules, etc), any references to NQF Levels are to the pre-2009 levels unless specifically stated otherwise.

This qualification is replaced by:

Qual ID	Qualification Title	Pre-2009 NQF Level	NQF Level	Min Credits	Replacement Status
72448	Bachelor of Technology: Professional Practice: Information Technology	Level 7	Level N/A: Pre-2009 was L7	480	Complete

PURPOSE AND RATIONALE OF THE QUALIFICATION

This qualification is aimed at senior IT professionals, with or without formal academic qualifications. It is a qualification in Professional Practice in IT and offers recognition of practical skills and experience gained in the industry, combining the experience with a formal academic qualification. This qualification creates opportunities for further career and academic progression to a Masters Degree.

A qualified learner will be able to design, develop and implement business information systems and to manage software development teams. Therefore, apart from being able to demonstrate competence in the management of teams that generate and adapt business information systems. Having obtained this qualification the student could get full membership with the South African Computer Society.

LEARNING ASSUMED TO BE IN PLACE AND RECOGNITION OF PRIOR LEARNING

The following is only applicable to candidates entering at this level:
Descriptive entry level:

This qualification is aimed at senior IT- professionals, with or without formal academic qualifications. The learner must be self-sufficient and competent in the analysis, design and implementation of large-scale business systems, either at a technical or management level.

Qualification entry level:

1. Relevant IT industry experience with prior learning recognition, having a minimum of 5 years experience. The learner is required to submit a portfolio of relevant experience, in a prescribed format, to a qualification entry panel. The final decision on entry is a combined evaluation of the portfolio submitted and a formal assessment of the learner, to determine the level of skill the learner has reached through the industry experience.
2. The outcome of the assessment in point 1 must be deemed equivalent to at least a NQF 6 qualification (360 credits) in the Computer Systems and Information Technology field.

RECOGNISE PREVIOUS LEARNING?

QUALIFICATION RULES

The qualification will be awarded to a learner who has provided evidence to the satisfaction of the assessors that the stated competence of the qualification, as detailed in the specified outcomes, has been achieved, either through education and training in a single provider's learning programme, or through experience that complies with the stated specified outcomes.

EXIT LEVEL OUTCOMES

1. Recognise the need to incorporate real-world drivers and constraints into IS strategic planning, feasibility, analyses and design stages of the entire systems acquisition lifecycle, and be able to select and adopt appropriate methods in order to achieve this.

2. Demonstrate an understanding of the means by which principles of Leadership, Human Communications and Time Management aspects will contribute to the achievement of the task objectives, with particular regard to the needs and demands of an Information Systems environment.

3. Critically analyse situations and day-to-day experience in order to explore the knowledge and other factors which influence their handling and outcome of the situation.

4. The ability to manage a software-intensive systems project by giving them an in-depth understanding of the issues critical to achieving delivery of such a system to the satisfaction of all its stakeholders.

5. Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of those issues surrounding the balance of technology push and business pull which are concerned with achieving successful design of business solutions using Information systems technologies.

6. Demonstrate mastery of critical competencies in the design, development and implementation of Server based systems.

Specified outcomes:

1.A Demonstrate knowledge of the various ways in which issues might be investigated, examining key assumptions and their own prejudices, and be equipped to think critically around the wider perspectives of their areas of concern.
1.B Describe the current social, political and economic issues and identify those, which may impact the Information systems field (C)
1.C Critically appraise current and possible future technological innovation and identify likely impacts upon the specification and design of Information system strategies (C)

2.A Produce realistic and achievable objectives from a given task description, incorporate these into a plan, and successfully manage the allocated/available resources in order to deliver against the specified requirements (C)

3.A Be aware of their own behavioural preferences, and equipped to consider the influence of these and their previous experience when contemplating an appropriate approach to a given task in hand (C)
3.B Be empowered to become fully cognisant of their own knowledge and actions, the personal and professional histories which have shaped them, the symbols and images inherent in the language they use, the myths and metaphors which sustain them in practice, their work experiences, and the potentialities and constraints of their work setting (C)

4.A Demonstrate the ability to manage a software-intensive project through all lifecycle stages from initial strategy to project post implementation review (E).
4.B Able to identify critical success factors in a given project and implement and monitor a plan to address these (E)

5.A Identify and analyse business needs across the entire supply chain in order to facilitate delivery of the most effective system solution to these needs while maximising the advantages to be gained from using current technology developments (E)

6.A Demonstrate the capability to effectively plan, implement, maintain and support Server based information systems, like Microsoft Windows NT or other advanced systems and workgroup products (E)

Critical outcomes:

The qualification is designed and should be presented and assessed in such a way that the following skills of the learner are promoted and developed:

The ability to:

Make decisions and accept responsibility.

Communicate effectively using models, visual and language skills.

Work effectively in a team.

Collect, organise and critically evaluate information, in order to assess the situation correctly.

Demonstrate an understanding that the problem-solving context do not exist isolation and therefore look at the system as a whole.

ASSOCIATED ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

A1 The principles of Inquiry Systems (IS) are understood and applied, like Inductive-consensual IS agreement), analytic-deductive IS (analysis) etc. ending with the principles of systems thinking.

B1 An assessment is done of the state of the world, highlighting current pressures (like globalisation)
B2 Explain professional codes of conduct needed in the information systems field.

C1 Software innovations are appraised and the impact identified.
C2 Network communication innovations are appraised and the impact identified.
C3 User interface innovations (like web-enabled and speech recognition devices) are appraised and the impact identified.
C4 System Architecture innovations are appraised and the impact identified.

A1 Decompose a task into its component parts, identify critical paths and allocate appropriate resources to each subtask in order to achieve the task within imposed constraints, with respect to time, cost and system objectives/success criteria.
A2 Decomposed tasks are related to a lifecycle appropriate to both the System context and the available technologies and techniques.
A3 Tasks are prioritised in the light of both organisational and personal capability, available and importance.
A4 Styles of leadership and communication methods are selected to expedite the allocated tasks
A5 The monitoring role is understood, being able both to act as mentor and accept being mentored.

A1 A series of psychometric tests are undertaken by the learner, which may be discussed with either the student's own tutor or a suitably qualified counsellor.
A2 Results from psychometric tests are used by the learner as means of calibration of his/her reaction to a range of situations.

B1 The rationale of reflection as the basis for learning is explained successfully.
B2 A reflective journal is maintained by the learner throughout the entire course.
B3 The reflective journal of the learner is the subject of ongoing discussions with the tutor and supports the student's awareness of the process of learning through reflection.

A1 Different types of Software Development Life Cycles (SDLC) are identified and explained.
A2 Principles of process improvement are listed and explained.
A3 Principles of project management are applied.

B1 Identify critical success factors based on knowledge presented in the course.
B2 Risk management strategies are applied.
B4 Principles of project monitoring and control are applied.

A1 The need for strategic planning for IT is explained.
A2 Principles of business process engineering are identified and explained.
A3 Systems analysis and design methods are applied, to acquire business requirements.
A4 Principles of human communications are applied.

A1 A plan of the support activities needed by a company or department is drawn up.
A2 Principles of problem investigation/determination is applied.
A3 Competencies for the design/development of the solution are applied.
A4 Testing techniques are applied to corrected components.
A5 Proof of Microsoft MCSE or Novell MCE certification.

Integrated assessment:

1. Time-constrained written examination
2. Coursework evaluation
3. Continuous evaluation
4. Integrated assessment

ARTICULATION OPTIONS

Masters Degrees (M Tech) in Professional Practice

MODERATION OPTIONS

SERTEC
SETA/ETQA
SAQA/ETQA

CRITERIA FOR THE REGISTRATION OF ASSESSORS

Assessors need to be familiar with the following areas, to be able to assess this qualification:

The field of systems development
The field of project management for IT projects
The field of general management

NOTES

While South Africa still had Technikons, all of their qualifications were registered under the Committee of Technikon Principals. After the Technikons became Universities of Technology or merged with Universities, the qualifications were registered under each of these institutions, and the CTP qualifications fell away (hence the end date of 2006, above). Where relevant, replacement information is
shown in the table above.

LEARNING PROGRAMMES RECORDED AGAINST THIS QUALIFICATION:

When qualifications are replaced, some of their learning programmes are moved to being recorded against the replacement qualifications. If a learning programme appears to be missing from here, please check the replacement.

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PROVIDERS CURRENTLY ACCREDITED TO OFFER THIS QUALIFICATION:

This information shows the current accreditations (i.e. those not past their accreditation end dates), and is the most complete record available to SAQA as of today. Some Primary or Delegated Quality Assurance Functionaries have a lag in their recording systems for provider accreditation, in turn leading to a lag in notifying SAQA of all the providers that they have accredited to offer qualifications and unit standards, as well as any extensions to accreditation end dates. The relevant Primary or Delegated Quality Assurance Functionary should be notified if a record appears to be missing from here.

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