Technology Management
Overview
The challenges facing managers are increasingly as much about technology as they are about people.
The master's program in Technology Management at Stevens is for part-time students with significant work experience who are able to attend classes every other Saturday.
The program is designed to give you the skills and perspective required to lead in environments where technology is central to the mission — and at a pace that's ideal for professionals. Faculty in this program are particularly distinguished for their corporate experience, and their insights from research and the workplace will prepare you for the challenges of leadership in the digital age.
After completing the program, most students continue for another year to earn an Executive MBA - EMBA, which offers a more comprehensive examination of leadership topics and an international business component that includes a visit to another country.
Technology emphasis
For those who aspire to lead, it’s not enough to hire the right data scientists to support decision-making. You must be able to confidently challenge those conclusions, recommend new tools and get your hands dirty with the data in evaluating strategic opportunities.
An experienced network
The average Technology Management student has more than a decade of professional experience. You'll quickly learn to see your classmates as both peers and instructors, whose corporate experience will challenge your assumptions about technology and leadership while enriching class discussion.
Curriculum Overview
The Technology Management master's curriculum is tailored to the needs of experienced professionals eager to develop new skills in data-driven decision-making, strategic management, and teaming and leadership. Fast-paced classes draw on both the professor's research and industry expertise as well as the work insights you and your fellow students bring to the discussion.
Core curriculum
This course focuses on understanding the interplay of group, inter-group, and organizational factors on the performance of multifunctional teams in technology-based organizations. The course integrates theory and research on multifunctional teams with the skills necessary for effectively managing them. Topics covered include managing decision-making and conflict in multifunctional teams, managing the team’s boundary and inter-group relations, organizational designs that support working cross-functionally, and measuring and rewarding team performance. Cases are used to illustrate the problems of working cross-functionally. Individuals are given feedback on their team management skills.
This course focuses on the methodology involved in developing and writing an effective marketing plan. It covers how to obtain the information that is needed and how to write a rigorous marketing plan for a product or service. The course details the steps needed to perform a market opportunity analysis (MOA), and explores how to develop market-based strategies and tactics to capitalize on the identified opportunities.
This course presents concepts regarding the collection, processing and reporting of financial information in a technology-based business. Managerial accounting and cost accounting, and their uses and limitations, will be discussed. Use of financial statements, budgets, and cost estimates in management decision-making will be emphasized. The impact of the risk and uncertainty associated with financial decisions will be illustrated via case studies.
Financial manager’s functions; liquidity vs. profitability; financial planning; capital budgeting; management of long-term funds, money, and capital markets;, debt and equity; management of assets, cash, and accounts receivable; and inventory and fixed assets.
This course deals with the theory and methods associated with design thinking, a problem-solving protocol that spurs innovation and solves complex problems. Design thinking involves a unique form of inquiry which goes well beyond product and service design. Students will develop an appreciation for design and develop skills for studying design systems. These concepts and methods have wide applicability as they can be used to design organizations of people, information structures, compensation systems as well as the entire consumer experience. Applying these approaches can often create entirely new systems that are more useful and usable. The logic of this approach can sometimes solve "wicked problems" which have defied previous solutions.
This course introduces managers to the essence of business economics — the theories, concepts and ideas that form the economist’s tool kit encompassing both the microeconomic and macroeconomic environments. Microeconomic topics include demand and supply, elasticity, consumer choice, production, cost, profit maximization, market structure, and game theory while the Macroeconomic topics will be GDP, inflation, unemployment, aggregate demand, aggregate supply, fiscal and monetary policies. In addition the basic concepts in international trade and finance will be discussed.
This course discusses the technology strategy process and develops skills, methodologies, and critical thinking in order to achieve technological competitive advantage. Subjects covered include technology life-cycles, type and characteristics of RD&E project portfolio selection, and an overview of successful development strategies. Case studies will be used to build competence and confidence in the concepts.
This course focuses on the major elements of the strategic management model, including mission, external and global environment, company profile, strategic analysis and choice, long- and short-term objectives; action plans/tactics, policies, restructuring, reengineering, strategic control, and continuous process improvement (CPI). Student teams analyze and formulate strategies for companies they select.
This course focuses on corporate venturing and entrepreneurship. Business and financial issues associated with starting and buying an entrepreneurial, high-technology business are addressed. Subjects covered include a discussion of previous corporate ventures, critical success factors, and an international perspective on corporate venturing. Lessons learned from new technology start-ups will be discussed, along with an evaluation of the decision processes used by venture capitalists. The final project is the development of a venture plan for the student’s company. Over half of the business plans receive funding. Startup funding on previous projects has ranged from $50,000 to $1,000,000,000.
This course covers the general area of management of operations, both manufacturing and non-manufacturing. The focus of the course is on productivity and total quality management. Topics include quality control and quality management, systems of inventory control, work and materials scheduling, and process management.
Course scheduling
Courses are taken in cohort fashion, meaning each class of students goes through the courses together. This allows for shared experiences from the workplace to shape learning and encourages deep connections between professionals, who work closely together on projects and presentations throughout their time in the master's program. The cohort experience is continued for students who go on to the EMBA program for an additional year.
Semester | Year One | Year Two |
Fall | EMT 740 Team Leadership Development | EMT 696 Design Thinking |
| EMT 606 Economics | EMT 715 Strategic Management |
Spring | EMT 642 Marketing Strategy | EMT 752 Corporate Entrepreneurship |
| EMT 624 Financial and Managerial Accounting | EMT 657 Operations Management |
| West Point leadership retreat |
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Summer | EMT 623 Financial Management |
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| EMT 677 Managing Emerging Technology |
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Admission requirements
The master's program in Technology Management is for part-time students with significant work experience who are able to attend classes on campus every other Saturday. The degree takes less than two years to complete.
Application deadlines
Because of the weekends-only nature of the program, the master's in Technology Management is considered a part-time degree. Therefore, applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Students can start the program in the spring or summer semesters, but it is strongly recommended that you enroll in the fall, so as to be fully immersed in the program's unique cohort experience.
Admission criteria
The demanding nature of your coursework in this master's program requires you to have at least five years' professional experience. To be considered for admission, your application must also include the following. Because of the extensive work experience required for admission to this program, GMAT or GRE scores are not required. If you have taken either exam, you are encouraged to report your score, but it is not a requirement.
Your application must include official transcripts from all universities you have attended, or in which you are currently enrolled. These records must show your name, the name of the university attended, enrollment dates, coursework completed and grades assigned. Your bachelor's degree must be in science, mathematics, computer science, engineering or a related discipline. Your degree also must come from an accredited institution, and you must have attained a B average, to be considered.
Given the highly technical nature of this degree, students are required to have completed one semester of calculus and one semester of basic probability, hypothesis testing and estimation prior to starting the program. Stevens offers noncredit courses for students needing to satisfy this requirement.
Work experience is not a requirement for this master's program. However, the admissions committee values applicants with at least one year of professional experience. You must include a résumé with your application that highlights:
Academic record.
Work and internship experience.
Leadership abilities.
Professional aspirations.
Your application must include two letters of recommendation. The strongest applications will include one letter from a current supervisor, and one from a former supervisor or previous employer who can speak to your leadership potential and discuss your professional performance.