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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.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Finishing Up Metrics for Software Managers


In this entry, I’ll explain my reflections on the Metrics for Software Managers class.

The Masters in Software Management Program is built on the principles of problem-based learning. In the Metrics for Software Managers class, teams apply these principles by using academic concepts to address business problems. Through this experience, we learn to work as a team.

In the process of developing multiple team deliverables, team members begin to recognize that we bring in different perspectives and need to work out approaches for creating a unified deliverable. We are called on to utilize listening and communication skills in order to ensure that each team member’s ideas are considered.

When we give feedback on the proposals of other teams, and when we receive their feedback, we often learn that we have characterized the problems and solutions in very different ways. Similarly, our formal presentations of our proposals may differ significantly and represent a diverse set of approaches. The lessons learned from the experiences of working both as a team and across teams enable us to reframe our approach to problem solving.

Finally, the principles of change management that form the foundation of the final major assignment are directly applicable to many aspects of our work now and in the future. In the dynamic workplaces of today, change is the norm. A thoughtful understanding of change management principles will enable us to help our organization respond to the evolving context.

posted by Rene Newton @ 11:47 AM  0 comments

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The Team's Learning Processes


In this entry, I’ll explain our team’s learning processes in the Metrics for Software Managers class.

The primary course deliverables were developed in the context of our assigned teams. Early in the course our team learned to build on each others’ strengths, while also establishing a structure that enabled a rotation of key roles among team members for the various tasks. To complete our team deliverables required that we learn about team problem solving. This involved developing a shared understanding of both the stated problems and the associated principles of metrics, software management and change management.

Each of us had an opportunity to formally present part of our team’s proposal to our class. In some cases these presentations encompassed independent research that provided additional insight into core principles. Attending and discussing the presentations gave all of us the opportunity to learn from other teams’ approaches to the assignment and to hear other teams’ reactions to our proposals.

One aspect of the feedback loop entailed each student providing written feedback on the proposals of two other teams for each major assignment. This was a new experience for some of us and called on us to characterize these proposals in ways that would help the other teams learn. We also learned from the feedback given to us.

In my final entry, I’ll share my own learning reflections on this class.

posted by Rene Newton @ 11:05 AM  0 comments

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