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Advanced Business Education for Developers?

Posted by Cliff on from the adding-business-acumen-to-technical-expertise dept.

DreamTheater asks: "With what I consider a battery of solid technical skills, I find myself increasingly interested in business skills to match. I am looking at MBA programs in either Technology Management or Operations Management. Has anyone pursued an MBA to enhance their career as a developer? If so, how has it affected you?"

19 comments

  1. Get ready ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    You're going to get more humorous replies than help, but you knew that didn't you ;)

    1. Re:Get ready ... by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 1, Redundant

      I'd suggest that acting lessons would help a lot. Blaming the programmers for all the problems is easier to do out of ignorance. You aren't ignorant, so you're going to have to learn to fake it. Good luck with that.

      --
      Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
    2. Re:Get ready ... by at_kernel_99 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wasn't sure whether to mod parent as funny or flamebait, so am responding instead.

      I have an BS in management; during my undergrad days I took a couple microcomputer classes, because I saw what my father was doing with computers to run his business better. I fell into a tech job through the back door & have been doing it for 12 years now. One thing I've learned is I have no interest in running a company or being a manager (other than doing my own one-man-show thing).

      That first company that gave me employment & tech training had a policy that if you wanted post-graduate education, it couldn't be in the same field as your bachelors degree. At the time I thought it was stupid, as I wanted nothing to do with a masters in technology, but now see the value; particularly if someone's career path is like yours: moving from tech to business.

      The difficult part will be in determining where to focus your energy. In my experience, managers with MBAs - but with little experience in the field - are idiots. My last manager (before returning to independant consulting) was one of these. He'd been through a reasonably well-respected graduate program, had studied all the latest methodologies & thought he was hot shit. The problem was he had no experience managing a largely self-motivated team & had no real-world experience with making methodology theory work with the reality of a start-up business & pretty bright/independant development team. Most masters curriculums don't address such issues. Theory & case studies in books only go a small way. Try to find a program that has a bunch of part time professors that have 'been there, done that'. I don't know how many schools employ part-time professors for post-graduate programs, but if you can find some they'll help you the most in terms of applying the latest management theory to the real world. Book theory & years in academia are no substitute for real experience.

    3. Re:Get ready ... by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 1

      It was meant as a funnay. My nickname might throw you off, but all it means is that I swear a lot, not troll a lot.

      --
      Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
    4. Re:Get ready ... by white_wolf21 · · Score: 1
      It's likely true that "book theory & years in academia are no substitute for real experience" but they can certainly *complement* your experience. Having an MBA looks good and gives you at least a solid background in management.

      Someone I know did their MBA through Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh - because they are a well-established university, they gave credit for previous studies, and only had exams (no assignments). (They weren't in IT, though).

      There are many different self-study (correspondence) MBA courses from around the world - don't just limit yourself to searching universities in your area/state/country. You may find a course more flexible/better suited to your particular needs elsewhere.

    5. Re:Get ready ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how does fp get modded redundant??????

  2. Might be worth a try by extremescholar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I did it the other way around, kind of. First I got an MBA, then an MSCS. I don't do much development work. I've got the stamp of a bean counter (I'm also a CPA), so they don't want to let me out of my position as accounting troll.

    --
    Using the Freedom of Speech while I still have it.
    1. Re:Might be worth a try by Forbman · · Score: 1

      ...what about applying your accounting skills to something like SAP, Peoplesoft, etc., and hiring a couple of geeks so you can go in and trouble-shoot installations and make them work RIGHT for the customer?

  3. ideas by ecklesweb · · Score: 3, Insightful
    A couple of ideas for you:

    If you're already solid in technical skills, you might want to looks at an MBA in general Management or some non-technical concentration. With concentrations like Technology Management, you'll have to take some dumbed-down technical survey courses that will offer absolutely nothing new to you. You're better off spending that time pursuing the business skills you're looking for, be that accounting, people management, project management, marketing, etc.

    If you're not up for a full-blown MBA program, you might consider a graduate certificate. For example, Penn State offers non-credit certificate programs in very specific areas like HR Management, Project Management, Leadership Development, Supply Management, etc. Your local university might have something similar.

  4. Go for it by tengwar · · Score: 2, Informative
    I took an MBA, specialising in New Ventures. I didn't take it to be a better developer, and I doubt that it would help with that. I work on design and implementation of large-scale international telecoms programmes(*), which means that my job is more IT and system integration, with a fairly small part of custom development which I outsource with the exception of proof of concept demos. The MBA gives me some clout in arguing over what should go into the product, and helps in running the programmes - project management, finance etc.

    Frankly, I'm probably too old to keep my edge as a C++ programmer (and the older I get, the better I was), but this way I can use my technical experience for something useful. Of course I now have to rely more on other people's technical judgement and sometimes they'll get it wrong where I'd get it right - that can be a bit frustrating.

    The course itself can be a lot of fun. There's a lot more analytical work than you might expert. I found the most interesting bit to be the strategy case studies. Sometimes it's possible to come up with a solution which is demonstrably better than the "standard" one.

    (*) "programme" in the sense of a group of related projects

  5. Anti-offshoring insurance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not that MBAs wouldn't get offshored, but if you have some business education, it ought to help you start your own business, from which you can't be offshored. It also might help you make connections that would help find business partners or investors.

    Hopefully, if you go in with a technical, cynical, skeptical background, you can be exposed to the MBA-think and come out unscathed, having rejected the more moronic theories and concepts.

  6. Start a business. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Has anyone pursued an MBA to enhance their career as a developer? If so, how has it affected you?""

    Yeah I was going to do a joke, but seriously there's one avenue that it will do you will with some other courses in say accounting, and economics. Starting your own business. Know how to do a business plan? Know how to manage people? Know how to balance the books? How about staying out of legal hot water with the government? Ever dealt with suppliers? That and more are possible with your technical skills, backed by some people skills. Now's the time to contemplate such a move with interest rates being so low, and local governments being "helpful" to the small business owner.

  7. Look before you leap by green+pizza · · Score: 1

    Debits, Credits, and management straegies give me a headache. For many of us techies, the management and money side of things is better left to those with a different type of brain.

    1. Re:Look before you leap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same here. It's why we'll never be rich.

  8. More on that theme by JavaRob · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you're already solid in technical skills, you might want to looks at an MBA in general Management or some non-technical concentration.

    This is a good point -- and actually, you should definitely spend some time thinking about what *kind* of business skills you want.

    I've been thinking of going for an MBA myself -- not because I want to get into project management, HR, etc., *myself*, but because my software designs would be better if I knew more about how the business works, and *could* work. I've learned tons of accounting and business practice details while writing custom software, report generators, etc.. I think an MBA could help me figure out new businesses and business models (as I work for other clients), by teaching me the general principals (whereas now I just know the specifics of one business, really)... plus I might even be able to offer software changes to help them *upgrade* their business processes, instead of just automating what they've had for years.

    I still want to spend the majority of my time designing and implementing software... but the more I know about how business works, the better I'll be able to advice fitting new technologies into it (which means more value to the client, and often more interesting projects for me!)

  9. I'm getting out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have a Bachelors in Computer Science / IT and have 7 years of web development experience. We recently moved to a large city in the Mountain Time Zone, and all I can find out here are jobs paying, at most, $9.00 an hour. So I say, forget any more advanced training or anything in this field. I'm getting out and going back to school to become a Pharmacist. At least if that gets outsourced it will only be going to Canada, and I can deal with living there.

  10. MBA won't hurt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can take an IT oriented MBA, this will broaden your horizons regarding the role of IS in an organization and will teach you some standard design methodologies (from DFD and RFD to OOD and beyond).

  11. Dammit by arhar · · Score: 1

    This is such an interesting topic ... I was thinking of asking exactly the same question. 17 replies? C'mon people!!!

  12. Maybe Not an MBA... by endofoctober · · Score: 1

    The advice I was given when I started my search was to look at other types of degrees beyond an MBA. MBAs can have two unpleasant side effects: pidgeonholing you into a strict business role, and making a decent number of people think you're not worth your pricetag.

    Have you thought about maybe mixing in some university-level online coursework in business? If anything, investigate some of the offerings beyond an MBA, and see if you can find a few alternatives before deciding.

    Best of luck!

    --
    - Jack