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Today it is self-evident that information technology is fundamental to the practice of general management. With the coming of age of computerisation efforts in most businesses today, the need of the techno-manager is but natural. Students with a wide array of business skills often choose jobs that need computerisation knowledge and skills for the proper functioning of the person on the job. While on the one hand they have good functional expertise, it is often found that on the other hand the skills to manage in the present computerised environment are lacking. Also, those that have a good grasp of the enabling computer technologies often lack the management perspective to carry out their roles effectively.

This course has therefore been designed to bridge the gap between the need of business process knowledge and functional computer expertise. The aim of the course is to make the student a manager of computer service offerings. It will enable the student to understand the advanced technology perspective while focussing on their role as a manager of these resources. It will enable the practitioner of technology offerings to manage the business better and to provide a need-based support to the business. In this course, participants will be able to appreciate the basic components of the underlying technologies that integrate various facets of the business for enhanced productivity within the organization.

The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with technology to drive the business goals. It will consist of two parts:

The material which has been compiled and distributed for the course, gives all required reading matter for class and reference purposes. This will adequately cover the objectives of the course.

The entire course is “application oriented” and in keeping with the purpose of making the participant an effective manager of computer systems, the course is based on both lecture sessions and practical work. The classroom sessions will be participative in nature with demonstration of important concepts and applications where possible. The participant will be able to apply the concepts in practical sessions and during assignments that are included for the purpose, as part of the course.

The course will be conducted in 20 sessions of 1½ hour each as per schedule. The topics to be covered are enumerated below:

Srl	Topic	No. of sessions
1.	Introduction: History of Computing Emerging business and IT Trends The IT perspective of the future IT Business Models · Technology Implications · Managerial Implications	1 session
2.	Use of tools for System Analysis and Design	1 session
3.	The Management of System Life Cycle models System Life Cycle Tools Software Configuration Management - Need, Definition and elements	1 session
4.	Software Project Management Use of MS Project	1 session
5.	Quality Aspects in Software Engineering ISO 9000 process requirements Process and quality control CMMI and PCMM Six Sigma	1 session
6.	Human Resources Information Systems – Build and Buy	1 session
7.	Process Modelling for Business Rules Business Process Re-engineering: Concepts and Practice	1 session
8.	Benchmarking	1 session
9.	Enterprise Resources Planning – Process Orientation, Project Implementation Methodology and Design Configuration Human Resources Systems and Processes	5 sessions
10.	Management of Change Security and Disaster management Risk Management	1 session
11.	Networking Technology Design of corporate local area networks/Intranets/Extranets Groupware	1 session
12.	Strategy and the Internet Internet based Technology Application of IT in E-commerce/Value Chain Management	1 session
13.	Determination of hardware, software, network and other technology in an organization Preparing and justifying the budget proposal	1 session
14.	Group project Presentations	1 session
15.	IT Marketing	1 session
16.	Supply Chain Management Customer Relationship Management/E-CRM	½ session
17.	Databases (distributed vs. centralized) Distributed RDBMS architecture Managing a Centralized Database Data Mining/Data warehousing Applications/Business Intelligence Warehousing	½ session

The Mid Term exam will be held on a mutually agreed date during the class. It will be a closed book exam with coverage of topics covered till the exam.

The individual assignment consists of choosing an article from any journal of the participant’s choice and doing a review (between 10 and 15 pages) on any topic connected with the course as listed in the course outline. The topic (with full reference) for this individual assignment is to be submitted by the end of the fifth class and the final word-processed “soft copy” and report (including soft copies of articles) by the date of the midterm exam.

Group assignments are to be done in groups of 5 - 6 persons. Names of members of the group are to be given in by the end of the fifth class.

For the group assignment, the group needs to visit an existing organisation, which has implemented any of the technologies listed in the course outline. The group needs to study the implementation of the technology and make a presentation/report on how the business they have studied, has implemented the technology. Further they need to point out the lacunae/gaps in the implementation of the technology and how the same could have been used by the business to the technology’s fullest potential. For e.g. a group can choose to study the reengineering of business processes in an organisation while another group can study the ERP implementation of another organisation. The aim of this project is that a “real life” experience of technology use should be clear to the members of the group.

Each group must make a presentation in the session kept aside for the purpose and suggestions/comments given as a feedback in the class may be incorporated in the final report. The final word-processed “soft copy” and report are to be submitted on the date of the end term exam.

Since the main inputs for the course will be from lecture sessions, it is important for participants to be present for all classes and to participate in the discussions held in class. Participants should be prepared to contribute to the discussion of the assignments for each class. The quality of input is more important than the quantity. Institute rules will apply to participants failing to comply with the minimum requirements of attendance in class.

The end term exam will be an open book exam that will cover the entire course. Participant’s skill and knowledge will be tested during the exam.

6. Academic Integrity

Students involved in academic dishonesty will receive a ZERO grade on the particular component in which the violation occurred. Academic dishonesty consists of misrepresentation by deception or by other fraudulent means such as copying or use of unauthorized aids in tests, talking during in-class examinations; aiding another student’s dishonesty; and giving false information for the purpose of gaining credits.


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