What would you cover in a CS class for MBAs?

by phrogdriver • 12 years ago

2 4 12 years ago

phrogdriver2• 12 years ago

Any suggestions from the HN community would be much appreciated!

I just finished an EMBA which is a slightly different target: people with 6+ years of experience aiming at upper management, so was more high-level than many MBA programs. My classmates varied from 28-50 across large and small companies in all industries. So our course name was "Information Technology as a Strategic Tool" so a different focus than "Technology Product Management".

Main Topics from our class:

  1. Technology & Business and IT Fundamentals
  2. Technology Planning, IT Governance and Enterprise Architecture
  3. Technology Selection and Implementation
  4. Managing Information Technology Risk
  5. Technology & The Customer

Part of the description:

This course emphasizes technology as a business enabler and stresses the importance of aligning technology initiatives with daily operations, strategic planning processes, and with the organization’s vision, mission, culture and short and long-term objectives.

We initially covered the building blocks of IT systems to know the concept of database, UI, distributed versus centralized systems, and such things. But then we used case studies and a group project to get into successful and unsuccessful projects to implement and upgrade systems. Events like the Target data breach were excellent fodder. The list of case studies could be useful as well, but again they are focused on IT for a company rather than managing a product.

I'd be happy to share the syllabus and some other materials with you if you email me. I don't feel comfortable publicly posting it all without my professor's consent.

phrogdriver2• 12 years ago

We have similar courses covering strategy, but I would much appreciate the syllabus to compare and see which cases you used. You can DM me your email on twitter @adamgengler if you don't want to post it publicly. Thanks!

golgappi• 12 years ago

Aside from actual CS knowledge, I think it would benefit MBA students that do not have a background in CS to know how software development and deadlines usually work. Would be nice if you manager understands that building a bug free software requires time, and inflexible deadlines is certainly not an option to motivate a software programmer.

What would you cover in a CS class for MBAs?

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