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MS Software Management Blog

Wondering if a Carnegie Mellon degree is right for you? Read along as our students chronicle their journey through the MS in Software Management program.

	Amin is a second year grad student in the MS Software Management program, a former Software Design Engineer from Microsoft and a current Software Engineer at Adify, a Silicon Valley startup. He is passionate about entrepreneurship, software and traveling. He would love to start a software company someday.
	Vineet is a second year part-time software management student, currently working @NetApp also nominated as the best place to work in North America recently. His area of expertise is Oracle ERP solutions. Other professional areas of interest are SaaS markets both technologically and business wise. @CMU he wants to grow his knowledge to manage software products and businesses. He is interested in work on start up ideas. On the personal side he loves to spend time with his family and travel.
	Rene is a recent alum, a manager of operations and program manager in Cisco's software development organization, the mother of two daughters and a performing arts fan.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The First Course - Introduction to Software Management

At orientation, like everyone else, I picked two companies – one private and one public – to research for the Foundations of Software Management course. The companies I picked were SOA Software and TIBCO.

The Foundations course was devoted to concepts such as marketing, strategy, managing teams, managing meetings, and finance, primarily as they applied to the companies we were researching. It was fast paced as each week covered a different topic.

We formed study groups of four students and shared the results of our research, which gave us deeper insight into eight more companies. By the end of the semester, our class of 20 students had fully analyzed close to 40 companies in seven weeks.

There are two things that stand out from this mini semester:

1. The most interesting session was the week-long session on managing meetings. After running meetings for over ten years the wrong way and facilitating successful meetings “only by chance,” learning the do's and don't s of facilitating a meeting was the highlight. I can already see the emphasis I make on preparing and planning to run a meeting at work. I still have a long way to go, but I think it is a change in the right direction.

2. Eric Daimler, our instructor for Finance, invited Dan Saccani of Ravix Corporation to present at the plenary session on finance. I was surprised by the services provided by this firm. Ravix Corporation provides consulting and outsourced services for finance, human resources, and facilities to early-stage startups. This talk inspired me to research and understand a bit more about the Venture Capitalist ecosystem.

In the first few weeks, I spent close to 20 hours each week on the course (we take one course per semester). It was mostly front loading the reading over the earlier part of the week and completing the tasks “just-in-time.” In retrospect, the “just-in-time” nature of my work was really because I was excited to start formal education/training again after more than ten years and did not know what to expect. Once I started to focus on the learning rather than the task and on the important things rather than on trying to do everything, the course seemed more manageable and I began to learn.

The program over the next two years provides additional opportunities to learn and refine topics such as strategy, marketing, and software business finance and budgeting. This helps me plan my learning as I can choose to go deeper on some subjects and skim through other concepts that can be developed in the later courses. My focus is more on the strategic marketing and business strategy that will come in handy at work now. I plan to look for opportunities to take more of the finance-related tasks for the future deliverables.

Around the same time, Steve Wozniak presented a session on “Engineering as an Art Form.” This session was free for Carnegie Mellon West students. Unfortunately, I could not attend the session.

posted by Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley @ 9:58 AM 0 comments

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Is Carnegie Mellon West Right for You?

I work as a Product Strategy Manager for Oracle in its applications division. I have over ten years of experience in software applications implementation and product development for supply chain management solutions.

With a background in Production and Industrial Engineering, I was looking to learn best practices in software engineering and software business management – concepts for software strategy that would help me immediately in my day-to-day work. At the same time, it was very important for me to balance my work, school, and family lives.

CMU West offers a degree in Software Management. It seemed like the course was tailor-made for my needs. The ability to interact with an accomplished and amazing faculty and to work with industry peers was exciting. My only concern was “Time.” Would I be able to devote the time and make the commitment required to transform my career?

I spoke to current students to get their perspectives, and I also spoke to Professor Martin Griss before I started my application to the program. Professor Griss told me that the degree was meant for busy professionals, and the individual courses and tasks were designed to take no more than 15 to 20 hours each week. The tasks typically required collaboration within and across various student teams.

In summary, these were the important points that I considered when exploring the possibility of attending a graduate program on a part-time basis:

1. A Software Engineering Management program offered by Carnegie Mellon University in the Silicon Valley that suited my career aspirations;

2. Networking opportunities with exceptional students, faculty, and alumni.

3. A course designed for busy professionals.

I made a good choice. And it may be the right choice for you, too!

posted by Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley @ 9:55 AM 1 comments

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