Industry

• Education

Key Benefits

• Differentiates Boston University's graduate business program from those of other schools
• Enhances Boston University School of Management's reputation among students, recruiters and businesses
• Teaches students how to align business and technology effectively in order to support business strategy and achieve business objectives
• Gives graduates a significant advantage over traditional MBA holders in the recruitment and hiring process and in career advancement

Sybase Technology

• PowerDesigner

Recognizing that information technology is pervasive in today's business organizations and is changing the way businesses function across virtually every industry sector, Boston University's School of Management created a unique dual degree program - the MS·MBA. This program fuses a traditional business administration and management curriculum with expertise about the IT systems that have fundamentally changed business strategies and operations in organizations. As a key partner in this initiative, Sybase has supplied the school with its PowerDesigner all-in-one modeling and design solution. This is to provide students with hands-on experience in translating business strategies into the IT systems required to support those concepts and processes.

Preparing the Next Generation of Business Leaders
An MBA degree was once the ticket to the corporate fast track and a successful and lucrative career. There is a growing belief among academics and corporate executives, however, that the traditional MBA model, which focuses on long-established business disciplines such as finance, marketing, quantitative methods and operations, no longer adequately prepares graduates for the complex challenges that await them in the "real world."

In today's increasingly complex, global, technology-powered organizations, leaders need to understand that business management and information technology are inseparably intertwined. They need to know how to align business strategies and technology solutions to deliver customer value and drive organizational growth. With that in mind, the Boston University (BU) School of Management created a unique dual major - the MS·MBA.

This next-generation concept in graduate business education programs is predicated on two key beliefs: Information technology is pervasive in today's business organizations and is changing the way businesses function across virtually every industry sector; and that if you don't understand technology and the interdependence between business processes and technology, you really don't understand business and are not fully equipped to become a business leader.

BU and Sybase Collaborate to Develop Pioneering Course
Perhaps the best example of how the MS·MBA program is transforming the education of future business leaders is a course called Systems Design and Data Management. This pioneering course combines business strategy and technology content in a single offering that is a requirement for the MS·MBA dual degree.

The course, which was developed by Professor Shankaranarayanan, in collaboration with Sybase, provides business students a background in IT and an understanding of the critical role IT plays in developing and improving business processes. Through hands-on experience, students learn how to translate business requirements into technology systems. Conversely, technology students gain a better understanding of how business works in order to develop effective IT systems that drive bottom-line success. Ultimately, the course serves as a bridge between business- and technology-focused students to enable them to strategize, communicate, and collaborate more effectively to achieve corporate goals.

The Systems Design and Data Management course combines a case study business process approach with business process and data modeling techniques. The course is built around realistic case studies that require students to design business processes and IT systems to support those processes using the Sybase PowerDesigner enterprise modeling and design solution. Students use PowerDesigner to develop a conceptual model of a new business process, transform that into a logical model and finally into a physical model - really the IT system that will enable or support the business process.

"We're not training students to be programmers in this course," says Professor Shankaranarayanan, who teaches the course. "We're teaching them how to understand business processes and how to use modeling tools - in this case, PowerDesigner - to align business and technology effectively in order to support business strategy and achieve business objectives. Once people understand modeling as a concept and learn how to construct and use models to analyze business or technical problems, they are much better prepared to evaluate business performance and find ways to create or improve business processes to add value for customers. This is important because understanding how to design an efficient and effective business process is critical to driving companies' growth and profitability. It's also important because the high IT project failure rate is due in large part to the inability of business and IT staff to understand each others' perspectives and to communicate effectively."

PowerDesigner: An Integral Course Component
At the outset of the course, students receive copies of PowerDesigner and instruction in its capabilities and use by a Sybase consultant. This instruction features a demonstration of PowerDesigner's broad range of enterprise modeling and design capabilities including Unified Modeling Language (UML), Business Process Modeling and Data Modeling, together with leading development environments, such as .NET and Java.

Students then receive a business case description that requires them to build a business process model, which is then used to create a logical IT model and finally a physical model (for both business processes and data) to support the required business process. It also enables managers to track and manage business performance in real time. In this way, both technical and non-technical students learn how to marry business and technology in order to produce the desired business results.

One of the most unique aspects of the Systems Design and Data Management is the centrality of PowerDesigner to the actual course work. It is the essential and prerequisite "school supply" for the course.

PowerDesigner Chosen for Ease-of-Use and Open Platform, Database, and Language Support
"I looked at other tools including CA ERwin and Oracle Case before selecting PowerDesigner," says Shankaranarayanan."I wanted a tool that was easy to install and to use, and completely independent of any major software or database. I also wanted the tool to integrate business modeling, data modeling, and object modeling so students could develop conceptual, logical, and physical models using the same tool. PowerDesigner was the only solution that met those requirements."

Positive feedback from students validated Shankaranarayanan's choice of PowerDesigner. "We used PowerDesigner to create different types of models including data flow diagrams, use case diagrams, entity-relationship diagrams, and the physical data model," says Jake Hiltz, BU MS·MBA class of 2008. "For me, the most impressive feature of PowerDesigner was the ability to convert the ER diagram into a physical model and then have it generate the SQL code automatically. Using PowerDesigner, you can spend more time making sure the models are correct and less time writing SQL. Because it was easy to use, it allowed me to focus more on the model itself and less on the tool.

"In addition," adds Hiltz, "PowerDesigner allows work to be broken into pieces, assigned to available resources anywhere in the world, and re-assembled to make a final product. The companies that do this most effectively will win. The knowledge I gained in this course about business processes and the tools that enable them will give me a tremendous advantage in the workplace."

Innovative Approach to Education the Workforce of the Future
Comments like these also confirm the School's decision to create the MS·MBA dual degree. "We're educating the workforce of the future," says Shankaranarayanan. "Courses like Systems Design and Data Management prepare our graduates to walk into an organization with the integrated, interdisciplinary knowledge required to look at businesses, understand business strategies and business processes, and determine how to leverage technology to improve business performance."

Serge Gagarin, BU MS MBA class of 2008, agrees. "Thanks to my MS MBA education, including the hands-on training I received in the Systems Design and Data Management course, for example, I will bring a unique perspective to thinking about IT issues critically and to developing creative solutions to the problems facing an organization. I will be that rare employee with a business education who can also speak to developers in a language they understand in order to make the best use of technology to support business strategies and processes."

BU's MS·MBA program has attracted the attention of other educators and schools. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the premier accrediting agency for bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs in business administration and accounting, recently commented on BU's program, "The MS·MBA program is a key differentiator for the school. It has attracted students away from competitive and better known schools and has a high level of student satisfaction."

As the BU MS·MBA program has grown in terms of enrollment and reputation, a number of universities have expressed interest in incorporating this unique business education model and partnership with Sybase into their own curricula.