Inclusion of Business Expertise and Non-Technical Aspects of Projects in the Curriculum for Engineering Education

Abstract

It is noticed that contribution of the new graduates to projects are very limited. For example, they have trouble to understand the "non technical" perspectives of the project and their contribution to teams are limited and at the end they started loose their motivation. These two factors increase the project risk for small teams and their personal development affected a lot. As a result, they become unsuccessful easily if they don't monitored or mentored properly. In addition to observations above, it is also noticed that new graduates also have either very limited or no idea about well known business solutions like CRM, SCM, Champaign Management, Financial Solutions etc. That's why, while evaluating a "job offer" they have very limited information about what they going to do. Since, these observations are common in all the universities that we working together, we concluded that that problem is neutral from the university and problem lays in the curriculum of the computer science departments... Because, computer engineering department give very intensive education on Technical aspects of the Computer Technology and very limited information (some time no information) about "Solution". As IBM University Ambassador team, we decided to develop a Lecture which is planned to be 4th Grade students. That Lecture, consist of 4 sections. 1) Give some basic clues about Business Life, Teamwork (non technical) , being part of a solution 2) Brief information about Business Solutions i.e. CRM, SCM, compliance etc. Why these solutions exist? What is the target of these solutions? Why companies buy/implement these solutions? 3) Considering a Company as a whole, what is the importance of IT.? What is the role of IT to success of a company 4) What is the dynamics of project other then technological perspectives? What is recruitment policy? What is ROI? What is profitability? What is budget etc? The way the Lecture given, 1) Classroom lectures, given by SME's who has at least 5 years of solution experience (all the students together) 2) Project activities, supported by assigned Mentor who has at least 5 years of project experience (as project groups) 3) Mid-Project Presentation presented by teams in order to be used as Midterm grade (as project groups) 4) A final exam, given in web environment in given time interval. Each student has "assigned" question and student free to use books, lecture notes and even can consult to SME who gave relevant lecture (unique question for each student) 5) A final presentation, given to Evaluation Committee This Lecture, • Given at 2007-2008 Spring Semester , Bilkent University Computer Science Department (42 student attended) , Given at 2008-2009 Spring Semester, ITU Computer Engineering (25 student attended) and Bilkent University Computer Science Department (43 student attended) , 2009-2010 Fall Semester at Bahcesehir Universitesi Computer Engineering Department (39 Student attended) • Currently, at (2009-2010 Spring Semester) ITU Computer Engineering (43 Student) and Bilkent University Computer Science Department (51 Student)