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The Carnegie Mellon West part-time software management master’s program prepares experienced software engineers and project managers for leadership roles in software business management. This program’s first-year courses are focused on process, project, and people management, while second-year courses emphasize the processes for taking a software product or service from an initial concept through detailed requirements analysis, market and competitive analysis, technical feasibility studies, and the development of a successful business model.
 CurriculumWorking individually and in collaborative team settings to analyze software business situations, you gain in-depth knowledge and practice directly applicable to the management of software. Faculty members provide guidance and coaching as you apply methods and concepts learned from readings, discussions, and task-specific assignments. Most courses include seminar discussions, simulated work scenarios, and a formal presentation of a team proposal to faculty members in addition to delivering work products for each task within the course. Each course offers an appropriate balance of individual and team work.
New Student Orientation
The MS in Software Management program starts with a required four-day orientation one week prior to the start of the program. This exciting event gives you the opportunity to get to know your classmates and faculty members, prepares you for the rigors of your first course, and creates an environment in which you begin the process of building strong team dynamics.
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Core Courses (7 weeks each)
Elements of Software Management
Through seminar discussions, collaborative practice, and individual investigation, you assess real software businesses from marketing, business strategy, financial, and overall business perspectives, applying fundamental methods, models, and frameworks. This course concludes with a presentation of your two-year business prognosis for a selected software business. Throughout the course, students are also coached on effective business communication.
Metrics for Software Managers
As a member of a team, you analyze and propose metrics initiatives for fictional software organizations with specific software management problems, aligning the initiatives with business and stakeholder goals. The process of analyzing these realistic business situations includes gaining a basic understanding of the software management approach and addressing issues related to the organization’s adoption of the proposed metric initiative.
Project and Process Management
Your project team establishes a business case for a new software project, describing project goals and success criteria with limited time and information. You recommend an appropriate software development process to senior managers after analyzing alternative approaches.
 Managing Software ProfessionalsYou and your project team address a series of issues related to coordinating and managing the various tasks associated with a distributed software development project. In this context, you consider a variety of issues related to hiring, retention, and dismissal of employees, as well as cultural considerations of managing a diverse team.
Product Definition
Your project team develops and refines a clear product vision statement that guides you in eliciting, modeling, and prioritizing business, technical, and functional requirements for a new software system that may be offered as a product or service.
Requirements Analysis
Your project team analyzes and documents the requirements for a software system from both functional and market perspectives. In addition to defining the requirements for a software product or service, you also examine the potential market to identify target market segments and to define a strategy to address customers in those segments.
Software Product Strategy
Your project team uses market analysis techniques to evaluate opportunities for a software product. You then use this information to explore technical feasibility, to expand the product definition, create a product roadmap, culminating with a presentation of your findings to senior management.
The Business of Software
Your project team creates a complete business plan for a software system, including definition of direct and indirect sales channels, marketing programs, support mechanisms, and professional services. You combine this information with a revenue model to define the structure of a successful software business, then present this plan to senior management.
The Gathering
After the second and fourth semesters, all students return to campus for a weekend of co-curricular learning opportunities, skill enhancement, team-building exercises, and fun. The program focuses on activities that continue to build a strong sense of community as well as team and individual growth exercises.
Electives*
Electives vary from year to year and typically include both technically-oriented and business-oriented options, as well as the chance to work on a practicum project.
| Recent Practicums |
- Accelere Systems – Series A funding
- BEA - Product management of beta launch
- Intel - CRM migration planning
- mRocket - Mobile technology
- Kalido – Expansion into Asia/Pacific markets
- NASA Ames - Requirements management tool and processes
- Roamables – Strategies for mobile application development platform
- PROforma – Strategy planning for CMMI solution market
- Open BRR – Business Readiness Rating (BRR) framework for open source software
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Practicum (14 weeks)
You work in a small team to apply what you have learned to a real-world business problem. Diverse organization and business clients sponsor the software projects and work actively with the team to ensure successful completion. Your team negotiates the plans, schedules, and deliverables with high standards for software management approaches, accountability, and teamwork.
Management of Outsourced Development (14 weeks)
Your project team analyzes the business rationale, risks, and benefits for outsourcing some or all of a new software project and presents its recommendations for outsourcing to senior managers. Your analysis includes which tasks should be outsourced, how to select suppliers, and how to manage the outsourced work effectively.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship (14 weeks)
You will work in small teams, advised by experienced venture capitalists and facilitated by other industry experts, to master the elements of entrepreneurship in the context of a business plan competition. Your team evaluates cases, meets with business leaders, and refines a business plan. The winning team receives a significant cash prize, and selected plans may be submitted to external business plan competitions.
Software Product Marketing (7 weeks)
Your team develops a marketing plan for a new software product or service, identifying programs needed to support the cost-effective launch and ongoing marketing activities for the software. Teams define the product positioning and the product marketing initiatives, including pricing, channel management, service agreements, product collateral, sales, marketing communications, and partnerships.
Enterprise Architecture (7 weeks)
As part of an architecture team, you propose and evaluate architectural alternatives for software systems, including both packaged and SaaS applications. Your study includes integration mechanisms, inclusion of pre-built components, and adherence to standards to satisfy a given set of business, technical, and functional requirements.
Human-Computer Interaction (7 weeks)
Your team develops and evaluates an interaction design for a software product, learning to use a range of tools and techniques. You model users using personas and scenarios, create an interaction design framework, develop low- and high-fidelity prototypes, and then apply usability inspection and usability testing methods to validate design decisions.
Open Source Software (7 weeks)
You acquire fundamental skills and awareness of recent technical and business issues regarding open source software. Emphasis is on understanding the impact of open source software on the software industry including licensing and commercialization issues, corporate software evaluation techniques, and business models.
Other Master's Programs
* Electives offerings are based upon student demand and faculty availability.
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