Associate Professor
Wasana Bandara

Profile image of Associate Professor Wasana Bandara

Faculty of Science,
School of Information Systems


Personal details

Positions

Associate Professor
Faculty of Science,
School of Information Systems

Keywords

Business Process Management (BPM), Information Systems (IS), Enterprise Design and Architecture, Qualitative data analysis, Case studies

Research field

Information systems, Strategy, management and organisational behaviour

Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy (Queensland University of Technology)
  • Master of Information Systems (Griffith University)
  • Bachelor of Commerce (Griffith University)

Professional memberships and associations

Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), UK

Teaching

As an Information Systems (IS) and Business Process Management (BPM) educator, I believe in and am excited about the impact these fields make to modern society- the opportunities are endless. I am a passionate educator and am committed to the quality education of each and every student I teach.  I like to leave my students enthused and curious to learn more, constantly thinking about what impact they can make to society. I have over 20 years of teaching experience in the Australian Higher Education Sector, and have taught over 30 different units/ subjects at both undergraduate and post graduate levels. I currently teach post graduate students Business Process Management and Information Systems Research Methods, at the School of Information Systems, QUT and run similar courses as a guest speaker (upon invitation) at other institutions inter-/nationally. I also lead the Doctoral education programs in IS at QUT. The topics I currently teach are:

  • Enterprise-wide Business Process Management
  • Business Process Improvement
  • Information Systems Research methods:
    • Basics of qualitative research
    • Basics of mixed methods
    • Tool supported qualitative research
    • Rigorous literature reviews
    • Case study research
    • Publication Strategies

I sincerely care for my students and their development as ‘holistic’ professionals, and work hard towards providing them the knowledge and support to thrive in their careers. I am a strong proponent of ‘real-world’ learning and have deep expertise in authentic learning within the classroom, work-integrated-learning (WIL), and industry-informed teaching. I engage in advisory/ consulting services for Information Systems (IS) / Business Process Management (BPM) course designs and reviews inter-/nationally, and I champion inter-/national capability-building initiatives for BPM/ IS educators. I have acted as a coach/mentor to many educators in my field, and am available for those who may like to engage with me in this capacity. My Higher Degree Research (HDR) supervision strategies, passion, commitment, and mentoring have facilitated 17 successful research student completions (12 PhDs, 4 Masters and 1 Hons), 12 as Principal Supervisor and 5 as Associate Supervisor. My supervision strategies have enabled my research students to win national thesis awards, best paper awards, and hold prestigious positions utilizing the capabilities they have built through their research degrees, as senior academics in reputed universities and/or C-Level executives in industry. My passion for teaching, learning & teaching innovative outcomes and impacts achieved, have been recognized with diverse accolades, some outlined below: ACCOLADES RECIEVED FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

National awards for Teaching I received the prestigious ‘Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation award for 2009’, for excellence in applying compassionate, student-centric approaches to motivate, inspire and support students’ learning. QUT VC awards for Teaching

  • Team performance award for outstanding achievement in Continuous Professional Education in 2010, where my research and thought leadership contributed to the design and delivery of cutting-edge BPM capability building modules for practice.
  • Team Performance award in 2009, for outstanding achievement in teaching as a member of the Bachelor of Information Technology Core Team.
  • Excellence in Teaching Award – Early Careers Category, in 2004, in recognition of my scholarship for creating novel knowledge-objects and innovative knowledge transfer mechanisms to support the progression of the field.

School/ Faculty level awards for Teaching

  • Recipient of Outstanding Teacher award 2010, QUT’s Business Process Management Group.
  • Recipient of Faculty of Information Technology Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award (Individual) for 2006.
  • Recipient of Faculty of Information Technology Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award (Team) for 2002.

Special recognition for research student supervision excellence:

  • Principal Supervisor of Dr Rehan Syed – winner of the Australian Council of Professors and Heads of Information Systems (ACPHIS) Doctoral Thesis Award 2019
  • Associate Supervisor of Dr Ahmad Alturki – winner of the Australian Council of Professors and Heads of Information Systems (ACPHIS) Doctoral Thesis Award 2014
  • Received the Excellence in Research Supervision Award 2012 – Science and Engineering Faculty
  • Member of QUT’s college of mentoring HDR Supervisors (since 2014).

Learning & Teaching Fellowships

  • QUT Teaching Fellow for 2007-2008
  • Senior Fellow of HEA (SFHEA) since 2018

Examples of invitations to lead prestigious IS and BPM Education events:

  • Co-chair, BPM Education Symposium at the International Conference of Business Process Management (BPM) 2018, Sydney, Australia.
  • Track co-chair, ERP and BPM Education track at the Americas conference of Information Systems (AMCIS), 2012, Seattle, USA.
  • Track co-chair, Education track at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS) 2011, Sydney, Australia.
  • BPM Education Track co-chair at the International Conference of Business Process Management (BPM) 2010, Hoboken, NJ, USA.
  • ERP and BPM Education Track co-chair at the Americas conference of Information Systems (AMCIS), 2010, Lima Peru

Experience

Publications

QUT ePrints

For more publications by Wasana, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).

View more publications

Filter publications:

A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/w.bandara