Classes
| TCU MBA Courses | Executive Education and Tutorials |
| Course # | Course Title | Core (C) or Elective (E) | Schedule | Credits | Prerequisite(s) | Course Description | Course Web Site |
| INSC 60020 | Managing Operations & Processes | C | Fall semester (7W3) | 1.5 | INSC 60010 or 60013 | Link | Login |
| INSC 71003 | Project Management | E | Spring semester | 3 | INSC 60020 or 60023 | Link | Login |
| INSC 71020 | Six Sigma Green Belt for Managers | E | Spring semester (8W1) | 1.5 | INSC 60020 or 60023 | Link | Login |
| INSC 71030 | Managing Risk and Uncertainty | E | not currently offered | 1.5 | INSC 60020 or 60023 | Link | Login |
| TCU MBA Courses | Executive Education and Tutorials |
I offer several executive training courses, tutorials, workshops, and seminars. These are offered on demand at your site. Content and duration are customizable. For further information, please submit your request by e-mail.
| Course Title | Duration Options (Days) | Course Description |
| Design Structure Matrix Methods and Applications | ½, 1, or 2 | Link |
| Product Development Process Modeling | 1 or 2 | Link |
| Planning and Tracking Progress, Quality, Risk, and Value in Complex Projects | ½ or 1 | Link |
| Introduction to Process Improvement (including Lean and Six Sigma) | 1 or 2 | |
| Process Improvement 201: Advanced Concepts | 1 | |
| Introduction to Project and Program Management | 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 | |
| Project Management 201: Advanced Concepts | 1 or 2 | |
| Project Risk Management | ½, 1, or 2 | |
| Project Scheduling | 1 or 2 | |
| Developing Operational Excellence | 1 or 2 | This course provides critical knowledge about how to plan and manage the work done in an organization, and how to make sure it’s the right work. The curriculum covers aligning strategy, product and service design, marketing, and operations, as well as how to identify and design processes that are measurable, effective, efficient, consistent, and value-adding to your organization. Participants learn how metrics, analysis, and tools such as Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Lean, and Six Sigma can improve processes—and distinguish real improvements from temporary “mirages.” We discuss differences between production processes and service processes, and recognize the characteristics of a well-designed service system. Participants leave with new insights on best practices to boost their organization’s performance. |
| Information-Driven Project Management | ½ or 1 | Information is the life blood of projects. Given a value-adding activity, it is the information on which it bases its work that makes the difference between a good result and a poor one. In most projects, work is done based on poor assumptions or other bad inputs, which causes rework, delays, and wasted resources. Since information enables job performance, it is essential to understand the information flow patterns in projects from a system perspective. However, most project management methods and tools fail to shed light on these. Information-Driven Project Management (IDPM) allows managers to unlock the information flow structure of a project and to visualize, organize, and exploit information relationships between activities. The focus shifts from managing activities to managing results, which form the basis for agreements, commitments, and accountabilities in projects. Managers will learn about new tools, such as the Design Structure Matrix (DSM), to manage information flows and reduce project cost and schedule risks. |
| Project Portfolio and Program Management for Executives | ½ or 1 | Contemporary organizations are casting more and more of their work as projects. Yet many projects fail or are significantly challenged to meet their cost, schedule, and quality goals. This course is designed for executives who oversee multiple projects, a project portfolio, or a large program in their organization. The course provides methods and tools to support decisions about project selection and appropriate levels of support. It addresses the skills to look for when selecting project managers. It highlights the latest ways to estimate project uncertainties, risks, and opportunities. And it presents how to determine appropriate metrics and leading indicators of success for projects. The goal of the course is to increase an executive’s confidence in the way his or her projects are managed, and to arm the executive with the right questions to ask to uncover problems sooner rather than later. |
| Enterprise Process Integration and Communication | 1 | Many organizations are orienting their operations around enterprise or business processes. However, this transition is challenging. It requires a new way of thinking about work, and it creates a new set of problems—chief among these being getting the right information to the right place at the right time in the organization. Enterprise Process Integration shows executives and managers how to unlock the information flow structure of their organization. Tools are presented for uncovering, analyzing, and improving communications and results throughout the organization while avoiding information overload. The techniques enable tighter integration and synchronization of enterprise processes, through the establishment of commitment networks and laser-sharp accountabilities. An executive using these techniques will be able to enact policies and directives that enable workers to self-organize and make better local decisions. The course includes a role-playing game, where participants enact the roles of process leaders in a large organization and actively negotiate process interactions. |
| Business Process Analysis and Improvement | 1 | This course covers the basics of analyzing and improving any repetitive business process, where the goals are efficiency, effectiveness, consistency, and high customer or stakeholder satisfaction. We clarify the fundamental metrics and their meaning, tying everything to the strategic goals of the organization. The course includes an interactive case analysis and discussion, where participants consider the production and service process of a start-up company as a building block for the operations of large organization. |
| Inventory Management Models and Techniques | ½ or 1 | This course presents a basic set of decision support models for managers who must determine order quantities and frequencies in their organizations. The models provide the most economical order quantity given carrying costs, demand uncertainty, stock-out penalties, profit potential, variable service levels, and other considerations. The presented models address both one-time and recurring orders. We will also consider the role of inventory from a strategic perspective and discuss cost-saving opportunities such as inventory pooling. |