Technical Management Courses

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.

Students learn effective management and communication skills through case study-analysis, reading, class discussion and role-playing. The course covers topics such as effective listening, setting expectations, delegation, coaching, performance, evaluations, conflict management, and negotiation with senior management and managing with integrity.

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

This course provides a comprehensive overview of important legal principles affecting engineers, engineering sciences and corporate management, with a focus on the intersection of these legal principles with business ethics. The student learns how to think through and process legal problems consistent with ethical norms, and how to analyze business risks in light of operative legal constructs, taking into consideration ethical issues, to arrive at a range of correct business decisions. Throughout the course, the student will learn substantive legal principles. Students will engage in weekly discussion board postings, completing quizzes and three individual papers.

This course focuses on analysis and interpretation of financial statements with an emphasis on measuring the results of operations and financial position of business organizations. Course topics include: compilation of financial statements, ratio analysis, business profitability- breakeven analysis, return on assets, return on investment, business financing, planning and budgeting.

This course is intended to integrate the learning from the previous engineering management courses and to focus it on the perspective and problems of the Chief Executive Officer and other “C-suite” organizational strategic managers. The focus is on understanding the Strategic Management Process (SMP) in large organizations, which includes both strategy formulation and strategy implementation. There is a particular focus on strategic management of technology and innovation. The theme of the course is that large organizations do better when they formulate a strategic action plan based on their strategic management process. In addition to case studies and textbook readings, working in groups, students will complete a Business Plan to develop and demonstrate their strategic management skills.

This course provides an introduction to the discipline of Systems Engineering (SE) and Systems Architecting (SA). Key industry standards for SE and SA and a standard definition for the “The Systems Engineering (SE) Process” are provided and are used throughout the course. The course describes how the SE process is implemented in standard life cycle models and through various standard organizational structures. Students will develop a requirements document, and integrated architecture, and a Systems Engineering Plan (SEP). Homework and Exams are designed to provide the opportunity to practice the concepts learned in class.

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.

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.

This course provides an overview of the basic principles and tools of quality and their applications from an engineering perspective. The primary quality schools of thought or methodologies, including Total Quality Management, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma, and quality approaches from key figures in the development and application of quality as a business practice, including W. Edwards Deming and Joseph M. Juran will be analyzed. Some of the key mathematical tools used in quality systems will be discussed, including Pareto charts, measurement systems analysis, design of experiments, response surface methodology, and statistical process control. Students will apply these techniques to solve engineering problems using the R software. Reading assignments, homework, exams, and the project will emphasize quality approaches, techniques, and problem solving.

This course will explore the practices of modern business transformation strategy, emphasizing the importance of understanding and handling the complexity associated with digital transformation disruption based on innovation and emerging technologies. The course will identify and examine the process that contributes to the innovation cycles to a digital society and digital economy. Students will learn to comprehend the problems that the digital transformation might produce and, at the same time, to assess the new opportunities that the digitalization unlocks. Students will learn how to leverage digital transformation leadership skills, how to manage IT and Business strategy realignment, digital business use cases to successfully capture value of emerging technology capabilities in society. Skills that students will learn include how to implement enhanced digital business strategy methodologies, how an organization can accumulate technical knowledge and exploit it in their product offerings, and how to apply transformative concepts aligned with an organization’s strategic business processes.

Understanding and grappling with considerations of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE/I) within technical project management is growing in both relevance and importance. This course addresses this imperative through equipping the student with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop a DE/I mindset in the management of technology-based projects. Centered on exploring how to incorporate and advance DE/I within the five (5) major project management process groups, this course provides a balanced overview of both the science and art of inclusive technical project management. A particular focus of this course is on developing the professional skills, growth mindset, and systems perspective that underpin the DE/I mindset in technical project management. This course combines lecture presentations, group project-based assignments, group discussions, individual case study, and exams.

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.

This course explores the best management practices of international projects, emphasizing the importance of leadership skills and virtual teamwork to successfully navigate through managing an international project. International projects differ from domestic projects by their complexity of culture, increased communications and collaboration requirements, local customs and practices, differing languages and currencies, processes, and the type of resources that may be available. The course describes how to conduct project planning in each of the life cycle acquisition process phases and then to execute the plan through recommended international organizational structures.

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.

Influenced by the technological revolution and globalization of business, an increasingly complex and challenging competitive marketplace has evolved. Businesses must contend with significant uncertainty, and traditional business models are less effective. Survival for modern businesses will require the effective use of information and knowledge. This course covers how to improve the organizational learning posture at firms, analyze and implement effective knowledge creation models, and how firms can retain and manage knowledge.

The Management Project course is the capstone for management programs. This course is normally taken in the final semester of their management program. Students will carry out individual research in a management topic of interest to the student and approved by the faculty member. The students work shall demonstrate mastery of the management and leadership skills obtained in the program. The result of the research is typically in the form of a case study of management problem of interest. This course meets in person approximately five times during the semester.

Prerequisite: Student must complete ENMG 652, ENMG 656 and ENMG 658 and (ENMG 650 or ENMG 668) with a grade ‘C’ or better.

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.