Remaking the IT Management Curriculum: A "Novel" Approach

We report on an experiment in redesign of curriculum for Information Technology (IT) management courses, a synthetic approach that attempts to combine the best features of explanation- and experience-based approaches. The IVK case series is a fictitious though realitybased story about the struggles of a newly appointed, not-technically-trained CIO in his first year on the job. The series constitutes a true-to-life novel, intended to involve students in an engaging story that simultaneously explores the nuances of major IT management issues. Three principles guided our development of this curriculum: 1) Emphasis on the business aspects of IT, independent of underlying technologies; 2) Student derivation of cumulative management frameworks arrived at via inductive in-class discussion; and 3) Identification of a set of core issues most vital in IT management practice, as a business discipline. We report results from using the curriculum with undergraduate and graduate students, and with executives at a multinational corporation.