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The MSIS MIT program consists of ten three-hour courses and a six-hour capstone project. The courses cover a wide range of IT management topics extending from strategic to organizational, financial, and technical. All courses are enhanced versions of the award-winning courses offered in the traditional two- year program. The capstone projects will be selected based on the interests of participants and their value and relevance to their companies.
Representative IT management competencies developed in the program are:
- Identify and broker solutions to current challenges utilizing best-in-practice IT methods
- Plan and manage for the next generation of IT business challenges
- Implement a business-focused approach to create value and deliver a competitive edge
- Utilize and manage resources effectively and efficiently
- Assume a strategic role in the enterprise’s future
As IS managers move into positions of increased responsibility, understanding the information needs of their organizations and how to provide for them becomes even more important. Issues of strategy, planning and control, and the effective utilization of the firm’s information resources are the focus of this course. Topics include:
• Frameworks for IS planning and different planning techniques
• Analyzing the different ways in which systems can be built or bought, including outsourcing options throughout the world
• Management strategies for dealing with project and system risk
• Understanding the differences among cost centers, profit centers, and investment centers and how they can be used to manage and control IS resources
• Managing and motivating computing personnel
• Understanding the emerging leadership roles for IS managers in a global economy
This course focuses on the fundamental transformations occurring in business and the manner in which companies are redefining their managerial practices in response to them. It examines the expanding roles played by information systems and by IS leaders as companies realize they can no longer rely on information systems strategies characterized merely by efficient transaction management systems or competitive applications that competitors can easily duplicate. The course investigates advanced practices that are being adopted in companies to gain true strategic power from their investments in information systems. It also examines ways in which IS managers can employ leading practices for integrating information systems and business strategy. It intertwines the responsibilities of both managers and information systems directors in the development and implementation of information systems strategy. The course includes:
• Transformation of business practices, products, and services
• Role of information systems in creating and enabling global business strategies
• Components of information systems strategy
• Competitive potential in the strategic use of information systems
• Impact of information technology on the global business
• Evolving information technology architectures to fit business transformations
Global systems projects are an essential aspect of creating, delivering, and utilizing information technology for business. This course is designed to assist managers in developing the knowledge and skills needed to work with systems integration vendors and processes in an international environment. It focuses on the concepts and methods associated with designing, planning, contracting for, and overseeing information technology infrastructure and applications in a global business environment. The course familiarizes managers with the legal issues related to preparing, distributing, and evaluating requests for proposal (RFP) and the subsequent integration and contracting matters. Effective tools and techniques for managing systems sourcing and organization development projects are introduced. Special exercises and cases focus on ways to meet the challenges of managing across countries. Managers prepare and evaluate systems proposals for various sourcing options and managing third-party relations.
IT project management in most organizations is not very disciplined and thus a majority of these projects result in failure. This course will give managers an understanding of the processes, tools, and techniques that are necessary to achieve success in IT project management and to develop quality software systems. Managers will develop an understanding of traditional project management approaches and core practices as well as new agile software development techniques. The course will help them recognize the warning signs associated with failing projects. In addition, they will be exposed to project management tools and associated software that can help better plan and manage IT projects. Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:
• Articulate similarities and differences between IT projects and other types of projects.
• Justify an IT project by establishing a business case
• Develop a project charter, work breakdown structure, and estimates of task durations and assign resources for IT projects
• Establish task interdependencies and develop and analyze a project network diagram
• Identify IT project risks and develop risk mitigation strategies
• Perform a post-project audit
• Identify cases of IT project escalation and how to de-escalate troubled IT projects
• Acquire a working knowledge of critical IT project management activities such as cost estimation and software quality assurance
• Understand the principles of Agile Project Management and how to scale agile project management techniques to larger projects and teams
The financial aspects of information systems investments and expenses are a mystery to many IT managers; but with the increasing pressures to cut costs – i.e., to do more with less – understanding how CFOs and CEOs think can be a critical dimension of job success. The course addresses the financial and accounting aspect of the information system function. It will cover:
• How is capital budgeting done; how are capital budget decisions made?
• What are the bases of cost allocations; accounting for IT services?
• What are the pros and cons of changing users for the IT services they receive?
• What are the different treatments for IT investments and expenses?
• What are some financial renewal models for IT investments?
• What would a P&L statement and a balance sheet look like for an IT department?
• How do you measure the business value of IT; the contribution of the IT department to the “bottom line” of the company?
This course in Business Process Innovation examines how IT can be used to substantially improve business process performance. Managers learn how to recognize business processes and assess their information-related pathologies. They learn how to develop organizational agility through business process innovations enabled by IT. Upon successful completion of this course, managers:
• Know how to organize and manage business process innovation initiatives
• Understand and be able to evaluate how alternative process configurations impact business agility
• Be familiar with techniques to identify and diagnose information pathologies within business processes that, when corrected, can lead to significant improvements
• Understand the important role played by IT as a source of business process innovation and know how to adopt exemplary types of IT to achieve increased business value
Dan Robey
IT managers are directly involved in planning and executing IT initiatives which are intended to transform organizations in fundamental ways. This course provides the conceptual and analytical tools for understanding how to manage such initiatives and make them succeed. The course relies upon case discussions and relevant research studies to shape skills for understanding and managing IT-enabled organizational change. Key concepts and objectives include:
• Understanding and overcoming barriers to IT initiatives
• Managing the transition to new organizational forms and practices
• IT managers as agents of organizational transformation
Security breaches and disruptions to business are high-priority corporate concerns, according to a recent Gartner Group CIO survey. Data “spills” during the last few years have raised significantly the priority of data protection and privacy. It is important for emerging IS leaders to build their knowledge and insights in these critical areas. This security and privacy course presents a broad, business-oriented security and privacy framework, including the following areas:
• Threats and safeguards
• Risk assessment and management
• Business continuity planning and disaster recovery
• Laws, codes of practice, and standards that form the context for information security and privacy.
Firms comprising integrated global business networks have solid enterprise architectures allowing them to align and manage their business processes and Information Technology (IT) infrastructure with overall strategy. This course takes an enterprise-level view of the portfolio of business processes, software and hardware, networks, people, operations and projects with a goal toward greater integration of those elements. As an example of enterprise IT integration, the course covers principles to successfully integrate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems into extant enterprise architectures. It helps managers understand the respective role of users, enterprise architects, developers and managers in the selection, preparation, implementation and management of large and complex enterprise applications. A participant completing this course will:
• Analyze a current architecture and perform an effective gap analysis before an ERP implementation
• Be able to map enterprise architectural resources to a contemporary Enterprise Architecture mapping tool
• Articulate the life cycle stages of any ERP implementation
• Effectively anticipate problems typical of enterprise-wide implementation projects
• Synthesize prior theoretical and experiential knowledge in IT development and project management with the current literature on Enterprise System development and deployment
• Be able to evaluate the progress of an ongoing enterprise implementation project
Managers will learn a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of wireless and mobile technologies and applications. The covered topics will include the current and emerging wireless and mobile technologies, such as wide-area wireless networks, wireless LANs, satellite-based systems, fixed wireless, and personal-area networks. How these technologies are being applied and used to enhance business productivity and provide business value will be demonstrated, including:
• How to manage an increasingly diverse and complex wireless and mobile infrastructure
• How best to utilize emerging wireless and mobile applications and technologies for business results.
• How to integrate end-to-end wireless solutions for business needs.
As a capstone to the program, there will be specially-designed research projects, the equivalent of two courses, undertaken during the last half of the program. The projects will be designed to integrate, to the maximum extent possible, the subject matter covered in the other courses in the program. The focus of study for each of the projects will be jointly determined by the manager, his or her employer, and the instructor, thus linking the project to the job responsibilities of the manager and providing benefit to the company as well as the manager.
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