tim:Technology Innovation Management program

Rationale

The course is integrated around the work that development project and commercialization managers actually do, and the context within which they act. In organizing the course, we rejected the traditional organization around functional areas such as human resources, R&D, marketing, finance, etc. for two reasons. First, engineers and computer scientists who are responsible for engineering processes in the real world make management decisions that are integrative. Rarely can these decisions be broken down into well-defined and stable functions. Second, the delivery of a course partitioned by function frequently turns into a series of disjointed lectures with no evident interdependences.
From our research and consulting experience and the research of others we found that in successful technology- based companies the development project is the main mechanism for learning and profit generation and that the project manager is the one person that can make or break the project.

All students in the Technology Innovation Management program are required to complete this course.

Benefits

Students will benefit from:

-Acquiring a set of tools and concepts that can be applied to improve existing product development organizations or establish new ones

- Developing the skills required to make, assess and communicate recommendations in technical and early market environments where there is not an abundance of information

- Using lessons learned in other settings to solve product development and commercialization problems

-Learning how to prepare a Gate 0 thesis presentation and a literature review

- Knowing how to access the engineering management and commercialization literature

- Developing personal skills in making, assessing and communicating recommendations on how to improve development and commercialization organizations