Essential interpersonal skills are becoming increasingly common in the job postings for data science positions. Cross-functional employee management skills are one of the keys to running a successful big data project. Managing your big data project will likely put you into contact with new departments and technical/business specialties. While big data project managers need the work product of many other departments, they are rarely given control over these other departments. The Management Sciences pathway provides you with the tools you will need to motivate and direct the work of others even when they do not report to you.
The courses in this pathway cover key management skills such as managing teams and projects and strategic and financial management.
Prerequisites
Admission into the Data Science graduate program.
Courses
ENMG 650: Project Management Fundamentals
Students learn the fundamentals of managing projects in a systematic way. These fundamentals can be applied within any industry and work environment and will serve as the foundation for more specialized project management study. Principles and techniques are further reinforced through practical case studies and team projects in which students simulate project management processes and techniques.
ENMG 654: Leading Teams and Organizations
Students analyze leadership case studies across a wide range of industries and environments to identify effective leadership principles that may be applied in their own organizations. Students learn how to influence people throughout their organization, lead effective teams, create an inclusive workplace, use the Six Sigma process, implement and manage change and develop a leadership style.
Prerequisite: ENMG 652: Management, Leadership and Communication
ENMG 658: Financial Management
This course focuses on analysis and interpretation of financial statements with an emphasis on the measurement of results of operations and financial position of business organizations. The course covers the fundamentals of reading and analyzing financial statements and reports and applying to a business or work setting. The course will cover budgeting, profit planning, return on investment, risk and return, strategy and other financial information used in business decision-making. Students will discuss various types of contracts based on cost structure and prepare budgets as used in grant funding proposals.
ENMG 659: Strategic Management
This course is intended to integrate the learning from the previous management courses and to focus it on the perspective and problems of the Chief Executive Officer and other organizational strategic managers. The theme of the course is that any organization improves its chances of sustained success when its managers formulate an action-oriented strategic business plan based on the strategic management process. Case studies are included to illustrate the concepts and their applications.
Prerequisite: Minimum of three engineering management courses
ENMG 660: Systems Engineering Principles
This course provides the foundational framework to understand the system engineering (SE) process, selection of specialized SE tools and the execution of SE under differing design or acquisition philosophies. the courses addresses: (1)SE principles (2)SE processes and methodologies (3) integration of technical disciplines and (4) SE management.
This course can be counted as either a management course or an engineering course for the M.S. in Engineering Management.
ENMG 661: Leading Global Virtual Teams
This course is designed to help the student apply managerial concepts and skills to managing and leading virtual and/or global work teams. Geographically dispersed work teams have great challenges: tone is difficult to convey electronically, time zones limit audio communication opportunities, work oversight requires more reposting, and team building is exceedingly difficult using technological – rather than in-person – tools. Language and culture differences in multinational teams compound these challenges. Students will learn to empower others, build credibility, communicate appropriately and adapt quickly across cultures and technologies.
ENMG 663: Advanced Project Management Applications
This advanced course in project management builds on the beginner level project management courses to expand the hands-on applications, with a focus on critical evaluation of project performance and ultimately creating an environment for maximizing one’s own project management performance. With a strong emphasis on the importance of learning through application, the course will bridge academia with the professional business environment to provide opportunities for students to interact with industry professionals as the students execute their course work. Students will also confront the real challenges facing project managers associated with the growing global and virtual workforce through the use of online learning tools and methods of collaboration. At the successful completion of the course, students will have the requisite skills and experiences necessary to function effectively, and artfully, as skilled project managers.
ENMG 664: Quality Engineering & Management
This first aspect of this course is focused on an overview of basic quality principles and applications from engineering and engineering management perspectives. Students will examine philosophies of key figures like Deming, Juran, and Crosby and discover the value of a variety of quality management approaches (Baldridge Performance Excellence, ISO, and Six Sigma/Lean Six Sigma, and others). The second aspect of the course will focus on discussion, analysis, and application of some of quantitative tools including: Pareto charts, measurement systems, design of experiments, statistical process control, and six-sigma methods. Students will apply these tools and methods to solve engineering and management problems. Reading assignments, homework, exams, and the final project/paper will emphasize the application of quality approaches, techniques, and problem solving. Note: Students in undergraduate engineering programs or graduate degree programs other than Systems Engineering or Engineering Management need permission from their academic advisor in order to apply this course to their respective degree programs. This course can be counted as either a management course or an engineering course for the M.S. in Engineering Management.
ENMG 668: Project and Systems Engineering Management
This course will cover fundamental project control and systems engineering management concepts, including how to plan, set up cost accounts, bid, staff and execute a project from a project control perspective. It provides an understanding of the critical relations and interconnections between project management and systems engineering management. It is designed to address how systems engineering management supports traditional program management activities to break down complex programs into manageable and assignable tasks.
SYST 672: Decision and Risk Analysis
This course provides an overview of decision and risk analysis techniques. It focuses on how to make rational decisions in the presence of uncertainty and conflicting objectives. This course covers rational decision-making principles and processes; competing objectives, multi-attribute analysis and utility theory; modeling uncertainty and decision problems using decision trees and influence diagrams; solving decision trees and influence diagrams; uses of Bayes’ Theorem; defining and calculating the value of information; regression analysis; incorporating risk attitudes into decision analyses; and conducting sensitivity analyses. A significant portion of the course is devoted to the use of various applications of analytic, empirical, and subjective probability theory to the modeling of uncertain events. As such, students will find it useful to have some experience with basic probability.
This course can be counted as either a management course or an engineering course for the M.S. in Engineering Management.
ENMG 690: Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship
This course offers an overview of innovation and its role in entrepreneurial ventures, both in new companies and within existing corporations. The basics of entrepreneurship with specific emphasis on technology-based business start-up are investigated. For the purposes of this course, technologies include IT, engineering and biotech. The course covers where to find innovative ideas and how to determine if a business idea is feasible along with an overview of the critical success factors in a new venture start-up.
Career Outlook
A skilled data scientist that possess strong management skills is an essential employee. According to Labor Insight, an employer-demand tool, the top skills required in job postings for data science positions include decision making, planning, communications, and project planning.
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