|
I'm currently working on an MBA and have spent many years in software engineering. My primary goal is to gain a business education and migrate from engineering into business leadership and management.
The MBA is useful for understanding business principles and also gives you a better awareness of "non techie" work in a larger ecosystem. It surprises me how many of my peers have no clue as to how their code works outside of their cubicle. Sad, but true. You can develop the best possible solution, but if you can't sell it, then it's game over.
For the general rank and file engineer writing code all day, it's probably not useful. However, for those in senior level positions, project managers and BA's it would be considerably more useful. At that level you need to deal with contracts, marketing, managing people across organizations, operations/supply chain, and other business issues.
|
|
|
|
|
This question assumes that an MBA is the best way to understand business. It might help developers communicate better with the pure business side folks who all went that path. However, in my perspective, this question is a bit off because it assumes a method for reaching a desirable goal. I'd ask:
Should developers understand the business of how their company succeeds/fails in their market?
Should developers understand the business of their company's customers?
In both cases, I think the answer is yes, but the second of these seems more directly relevant to our jobs, even as developers.
I suspect that in business school, they teach you that Product Managers define what developers will develop, Solution Architects define how it will be developed, and Developers code exactly what the PM and SA told them to. This is a nice theory, but for most of us it's a fallacy or some BS (Business School) fantasy. Developers almost always do both of these tasks all the time. How many times have you gotten arm-waiving requirements from a product manager and had to figure out what the customer actually needs? The PMs often even get the problem wrong, or come up with out-of-architecture demands that would ultimately be a disaster to implement. Solution Architects can provide some guidance about high level architecture, and may be great collaborators when it comes to how to develop a solution, but again, we'd grind to a halt if we waited on them for architectural guidance.
I think the truth is that if you're a developer, you're most likely to be playing all these roles all the time. It's one of the very coolest things about the job. Do you need to understand your customers' business to do it well? Yes. But will you learn that better by going to business school, or by talking with your customers? The answer seems pretty self-evident to me.
|
|
|
|
|
I have got to admit I nearly choked on this one. What the business does and needs and how it functions but please not from a business school.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
|
|
|
|
|
Agree 100%. You don't need any degree to understand the business. Say what you want about Microsoft, but Bill Gates is living pretty comfortably right now!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Seems to me MBA is the degree people get when they want to get a job, and cannot handle a technical degree. Friend who was interested in Economics took some MBA courses at University of Chicago and was totally unimpressed and decided to go back to Economics. SW people I have known to get the degree do not really want to stay in software. With all those MBA's there just are not that many middle management positions anymore. Unless you do well at one of the top schools, a waste of time
|
|
|
|
|
...that I know that have gotten an MBA get an MBA because they aren't smart enough to get a degree in anything meaningful. 
Go on, prove me wrong.
Marc
|
|
|
|
|
I hope I fall under the "other people" side of the mix.
The reason I opted for an MBA vs. an MS has to do with hireability^ (see what I did there) in my region. I live in an area with a very limited technical sector, and none of the IT jobs require or compensate for a Master's degree. However, we have plenty of employment opportunities for individuals with an MBA. And no, I'm not interested in relocating.
That said, while I don't regret choosing an MBA vs. an MS, I do regret choosing the school I did. Penn State's part-time MBA program has been a major disappointment. Penn State does offer a concurrent MBA and MS program that, were I single, I would've taken. One of the reasons I chose Penn State was that they wouldn't accept anyone into the program who recently graduated. I had to submit my resume as part of the application process, and I respect that the program wanted people with work experience.
Going the MBA route more closely matches my goals than does an MS. Once my daughter leaves the house (she's 5 now, so it will be a while), I plan on returning to school for my PhD and becoming a professor. By the time I hit that point, I will have had some time in technical positions and some time in managerial positions, bringing, what I feel, is a more well-rounded educational experience to my students. And while my technical skills will be obsolete by that time, the technical mindset will not. While I had several professors who were great at reading from books, I only had a few who gave realistic input for a successful technical career. In order to be a successful software developer who enjoys his/her job, the person must be curious. If the person is not the type to deduce how things work and why, then software is not the right career. The prospective IT professional must also be warned about how much learning comes with the field. One who is not willing to continue learning should immediately change majors to something less demanding.
Being a technical website, I understand the disdain toward MBA holders. I want to note, though, that I've run into just as many technical d-bags as I have managerial d-bags. I also want to note that I responded to Marc's post because, after reading several of his articles, he's one of my most respected authors. *salute*
^ For non-native English speakers: hireability is one of many marketing / management buzzwords polluting our language. The correct term would be employability, but that's another buzzword. So, to be correct, I should have used "ability to find employment" and stopped trying to condense phrases into nouns.
|
|
|
|
|
Same here. 
However, MBA everything is better than a WTF "European studies". Don't ask. 
Greetings - Jacek
|
|
|
|
|
... but it doesn't take an MBA to have that. Asking a lot of "why?" questions of the business types can give you that appreciation. Sales and marketing people know you don't have time to understand all the details about why they're asking for feature 'X', so they summarize and consolidate. Engineers thrive on details, so the business folks end up sounding stupid. Ask.
While we're at it, any developer who disdains the business considerations of their work should be fired. You're not there to play with all the shiny toys. You're there to help make the company money, either through support, product development, or some other activity. You have to make technical decisions based on business considerations. You can't just arbitrarily add that cool new library to the product, ignoring the $10K per seat license fee. You can't just rip out feature 'X' and replace it with gizmo 'Y' when there are support contracts out there for feature 'X' that don't expire until 2016. Again, it doesn't take an MBA, but some respect for those who do have and use one can't hurt.
Software Zen: delete this;
|
|
|
|
|
I don't think that a MBA gives you that. If as a professional you don't care, there's no MBA in the world that will make you different.
Different people, different roles.
The problem begins when you bump people up the hierarchy because they are incompetent or when people fall from the sky on management seats without being able to manage their own lives properly.
All those bad decisions you mentioned have already been made by well lectured people and anyway, pure techs (developers as you call it) shouldn't be able to make those changes without approval. If they can is because the management wasn't present. Who approved that? Who let that go to production? Who was managing the time of a resource that (apparently) was doing something not in the pipeline?
For me, I stick with my original post... MBA's don't make good professionals... there's so, but so much more to it...
But anyway, don't get me wrong, I'm by no means against it, and if it doesn't make you a good professional it won't make you a bad one either...
Cheers!
|
|
|
|
|
I'd say Yep! 
--
If money is your hope for independence, you cannot reach it.
Being loved gives you strength,
while loving gives you courage.
|
|
|
|
|
i want to suggest one question where i can?
|
|
|
|
|
http://www.codeproject.com/script/Common/Suggest.aspx?obtid=6[^]
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
|
|
|
|
|
thnx 
|
|
|
|
|
You are welcome
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
|
|
|
|
|
Yes you heard me. Only once you've come to know the power of software automation will you be able to implement it/ensure (pay the money) that it's being implemented everywhere in your business. Lets face it there is so many areas in various business sectors which does things using antique methods which cost lots of money. If the people who drove those businesses only knew the money making potential of automating these things using software applications.
In conclusion:
I disagree with the statement that people writing software should study MBA... and am for people that study MBA should learn software engineering.
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence."
<< please vote!! >>
modified 9-Sep-13 8:48am.
|
|
|
|
|
Same here.
We already have enough headaches trying to save the messes they do. Let's them to learn how to plan things better, that will make our live easier and we will be able to do our job more efficiently.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amen to this. During my own MBA course, both students and professors (other than the few of us who worked in tech) were woefully unaware of even simple concepts like virtual machines. Plus, most biz-types abuse Excel as multi-user databases (I used to work for a company that did exactly that before I moved into the dev world), so of course nothing could ever go wrong there. MBA programs now tend to require one MIS course, but even that was a gargantuan waste of time (we spend a whole section of a chapter over the difference of DML vs. DDL; I doubt the average business person could care any less about that).
As is all too common, academia isn't keeping up with real world developments. BBAs and MBAs won't be aware of technology options available, therefore they'll fail to leverage them when implementing process flows, etc. It's actually sad.
|
|
|
|
|
If you want to be the CEO of your company, then having a MBA will help you, if you want to be a programmer, run like hell.
It will be better to invest all the time and money in something that will really help you.
Of course going the path of "Who knows if tomorrow I'll want to make a startup", it's nice but, who knows if tomorrow you'll want to be a poet or send rockets to the moon or...
|
|
|
|
|
Basically depends if you want to spend the whole life in school or instead start doing something productive, earn money instead of only spending it and enjoy life while there's still time 
|
|
|
|
|
One of the "business development" managers (business development being in general not specifically software based) at our place is THE main problem when it comes to any software development and he's very very fond of reminding us all about his MBA...
|
|
|
|
|
Quote: he's very very fond of reminding us all about his MBA...
That seems to be a requirement of getting an MBA. It's just too common for it to be coincidence.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
|
|
|
|
|
There's not much more you can do with it anyway...
|
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
