One of the most fundamental and most highly debated questions in Information Systems education is the role of programming in undergraduate IS programs. On one hand, there are strong arguments and precedents supporting not only the inclusion of programming in these programs but also a significant role for it. For example, both the most recent model curriculum (IS 2002) and many existing undergraduate IS programs include a significant programming component. IS 2002 incorporates a programming course with a highly complex name reflecting the ambiguity about the focus of the course ("Programming, Data, File, and Object Structures,") but it also includes two additional courses that have significant programming components ("Physical Design and Implementation with DBMS" and "Physical Design and Implementation in Emerging Environments"). The "Analysis and Logical Design" course is directly connected to application development/programming. A closer evaluation of the course descriptions reveals a very ambitious agenda; the topics include items such as "programming in traditional and visual environments that incorporate event-driven, object-oriented design," "algorithm development," "program correctness, verification, and validation," "structured and object design approaches," and "structured, event driven, and object oriented application design." This choice of wording, which is practically unchanged from IS'97, signifies a strong commitment to developing the students' programming and software development capabilities. In addition, the general criteria for accrediting undergraduate computing programs (including those in information systems) clearly include programming activities (3 (c)) "The program enables students to achieve, by the time of graduation, ... an ability to design, implement, and evaluate a computer-based system, process, component, or program to meet desired needs.