The Master's Project

The Master’s Project demonstrates your command of the best practices of executive-level technology management by presenting your technology-based response—usually in the form of a product or service—to a complex, real-world business challenge, objective, or scenario. You will devise the idea for your Master’s Project at the beginning of the program, then work closely with your executive mentor to develop and strengthen the idea into a project plan that will ultimately produce a complete and entirely portable professional asset.

Master’s Projects are based on real-world business opportunities or challenges and are often centered on a business scenario the student knows firsthand from his or her own professional experience. Over the course of the program, and in partnership with the program’s community of faculty, peers, and industry leaders, you will research, develop, test, and refine your solution. Intensive Executive Seminars examine the central concepts, techniques, and stages of product development required for the Master’s Project, and also provide a forum for testing and group feedback.

Executive Sessions: Presentation and Defense
You will be required to present and defend each of the three sections of your project over the course of the program in a series of sessions that simulate presentations before executive boards, C-level decision makers, or venture capitalists. During these sessions you will present your project to a panel of executives who will respond to your presentation with a series of questions you must address as part of your project’s defense. During the program’s final residency, you will present the full project to—and defend it before—your mentor, program faculty and students, and a review panel of industry executives.

Examples of successful Master’s Projects:
Fragrance Informatics Application
Risk/Control Management System
Customized Project Management Office System
Brokerage Back-Office System
Supply-Chain Management System
IT Strategy and Governance
Nonprofit Administration Outsourcing
Security of Programmable Logic Controllers
Achieving a Competitive Advantage through Business Intelligence
Wireless Point-of-Sale Devices