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If your intent is to move up the corporate hierarchy and manage a bunch of developers, PM's, SA's, or what have you, and have sufficient respect of the marketing managers, finance managers, senior managers, etc. to get heard, then by all means get your MBA ticket punched. If you want be a top notch developer, be the engineer and focus on your MS in Computer Science, or other technical field. You can't teach MBA's to code. Period. You can only give them enough knowledge to be a major pain in the behind. Coders should either aspire to be MBA's or top engineers. Very few can be both. I know, I've tried.
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Well, I'm a "Dimplom Informatiker" (it's like master of computer science) with a emphasis to business. I think that understanding business processes is a very fundamental keypoint in architecture. In further education a made my TÜV certified project manager.
I think the knowledge of those tools is very important but everyone with a diplom or master degree should be able to work that out.
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Well, to some extent. Everyone should at least finish high school...
After that a smart brain, a good attitude and a bit of experience will get you further than any diploma could.
Unfortunately people who are hiring don't see it that way...
So far I've seen the best educated people write the worst code. It's sad really...
It's an OO world.
public class Naerling : Lazy<Person>{
public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}
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You are wrong: my code is really really bad. 
-- The Uneducated Klingon
Veni, vidi, vici.
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Based on their interests/Business requirements they can pursue MBA. 
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I think having an MBA in information systems is a good idea for everyone dealing with software development. I have done MBA in information systems in 2011 and I am still coding(and other technical stuff).
IMO, having an MBA gives developers a different perspective, The perspective of looking at software as business solutions. Most developers tend to think about the code and application without having the holistic view of the business application or schedules, deadlines, estimates. Studying about why these other things matter gives an edge to the developers and they can actually start thinking themselves as internal entrepreneurs(with a code to sell internally) in the organization rather than mere developers.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream. Discover.
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I think the question is worded inappropriately -- there is a very cute MBA where I work... 
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Then you must agreed that who market Software must be do an Master's or Engineering in Computer programming ... 
Cheers by,
Anand Ranjan
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I'm currently working on an MBA and have spent many years in software engineering. My primary goal is to gain a business education and migrate from engineering into business leadership and management.
The MBA is useful for understanding business principles and also gives you a better awareness of "non techie" work in a larger ecosystem. It surprises me how many of my peers have no clue as to how their code works outside of their cubicle. Sad, but true. You can develop the best possible solution, but if you can't sell it, then it's game over.
For the general rank and file engineer writing code all day, it's probably not useful. However, for those in senior level positions, project managers and BA's it would be considerably more useful. At that level you need to deal with contracts, marketing, managing people across organizations, operations/supply chain, and other business issues.
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This question assumes that an MBA is the best way to understand business. It might help developers communicate better with the pure business side folks who all went that path. However, in my perspective, this question is a bit off because it assumes a method for reaching a desirable goal. I'd ask:
Should developers understand the business of how their company succeeds/fails in their market?
Should developers understand the business of their company's customers?
In both cases, I think the answer is yes, but the second of these seems more directly relevant to our jobs, even as developers.
I suspect that in business school, they teach you that Product Managers define what developers will develop, Solution Architects define how it will be developed, and Developers code exactly what the PM and SA told them to. This is a nice theory, but for most of us it's a fallacy or some BS (Business School) fantasy. Developers almost always do both of these tasks all the time. How many times have you gotten arm-waiving requirements from a product manager and had to figure out what the customer actually needs? The PMs often even get the problem wrong, or come up with out-of-architecture demands that would ultimately be a disaster to implement. Solution Architects can provide some guidance about high level architecture, and may be great collaborators when it comes to how to develop a solution, but again, we'd grind to a halt if we waited on them for architectural guidance.
I think the truth is that if you're a developer, you're most likely to be playing all these roles all the time. It's one of the very coolest things about the job. Do you need to understand your customers' business to do it well? Yes. But will you learn that better by going to business school, or by talking with your customers? The answer seems pretty self-evident to me.
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I have got to admit I nearly choked on this one. What the business does and needs and how it functions but please not from a business school.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Agree 100%. You don't need any degree to understand the business. Say what you want about Microsoft, but Bill Gates is living pretty comfortably right now!
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Seems to me MBA is the degree people get when they want to get a job, and cannot handle a technical degree. Friend who was interested in Economics took some MBA courses at University of Chicago and was totally unimpressed and decided to go back to Economics. SW people I have known to get the degree do not really want to stay in software. With all those MBA's there just are not that many middle management positions anymore. Unless you do well at one of the top schools, a waste of time
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...that I know that have gotten an MBA get an MBA because they aren't smart enough to get a degree in anything meaningful. 
Go on, prove me wrong.
Marc
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I hope I fall under the "other people" side of the mix.
The reason I opted for an MBA vs. an MS has to do with hireability^ (see what I did there) in my region. I live in an area with a very limited technical sector, and none of the IT jobs require or compensate for a Master's degree. However, we have plenty of employment opportunities for individuals with an MBA. And no, I'm not interested in relocating.
That said, while I don't regret choosing an MBA vs. an MS, I do regret choosing the school I did. Penn State's part-time MBA program has been a major disappointment. Penn State does offer a concurrent MBA and MS program that, were I single, I would've taken. One of the reasons I chose Penn State was that they wouldn't accept anyone into the program who recently graduated. I had to submit my resume as part of the application process, and I respect that the program wanted people with work experience.
Going the MBA route more closely matches my goals than does an MS. Once my daughter leaves the house (she's 5 now, so it will be a while), I plan on returning to school for my PhD and becoming a professor. By the time I hit that point, I will have had some time in technical positions and some time in managerial positions, bringing, what I feel, is a more well-rounded educational experience to my students. And while my technical skills will be obsolete by that time, the technical mindset will not. While I had several professors who were great at reading from books, I only had a few who gave realistic input for a successful technical career. In order to be a successful software developer who enjoys his/her job, the person must be curious. If the person is not the type to deduce how things work and why, then software is not the right career. The prospective IT professional must also be warned about how much learning comes with the field. One who is not willing to continue learning should immediately change majors to something less demanding.
Being a technical website, I understand the disdain toward MBA holders. I want to note, though, that I've run into just as many technical d-bags as I have managerial d-bags. I also want to note that I responded to Marc's post because, after reading several of his articles, he's one of my most respected authors. *salute*
^ For non-native English speakers: hireability is one of many marketing / management buzzwords polluting our language. The correct term would be employability, but that's another buzzword. So, to be correct, I should have used "ability to find employment" and stopped trying to condense phrases into nouns.
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Same here. 
However, MBA everything is better than a WTF "European studies". Don't ask. 
Greetings - Jacek
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... but it doesn't take an MBA to have that. Asking a lot of "why?" questions of the business types can give you that appreciation. Sales and marketing people know you don't have time to understand all the details about why they're asking for feature 'X', so they summarize and consolidate. Engineers thrive on details, so the business folks end up sounding stupid. Ask.
While we're at it, any developer who disdains the business considerations of their work should be fired. You're not there to play with all the shiny toys. You're there to help make the company money, either through support, product development, or some other activity. You have to make technical decisions based on business considerations. You can't just arbitrarily add that cool new library to the product, ignoring the $10K per seat license fee. You can't just rip out feature 'X' and replace it with gizmo 'Y' when there are support contracts out there for feature 'X' that don't expire until 2016. Again, it doesn't take an MBA, but some respect for those who do have and use one can't hurt.
Software Zen: delete this;
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I don't think that a MBA gives you that. If as a professional you don't care, there's no MBA in the world that will make you different.
Different people, different roles.
The problem begins when you bump people up the hierarchy because they are incompetent or when people fall from the sky on management seats without being able to manage their own lives properly.
All those bad decisions you mentioned have already been made by well lectured people and anyway, pure techs (developers as you call it) shouldn't be able to make those changes without approval. If they can is because the management wasn't present. Who approved that? Who let that go to production? Who was managing the time of a resource that (apparently) was doing something not in the pipeline?
For me, I stick with my original post... MBA's don't make good professionals... there's so, but so much more to it...
But anyway, don't get me wrong, I'm by no means against it, and if it doesn't make you a good professional it won't make you a bad one either...
Cheers!
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I'd say Yep! 
--
If money is your hope for independence, you cannot reach it.
Being loved gives you strength,
while loving gives you courage.
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i want to suggest one question where i can?
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http://www.codeproject.com/script/Common/Suggest.aspx?obtid=6[^]
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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thnx 
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You are welcome
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Yes you heard me. Only once you've come to know the power of software automation will you be able to implement it/ensure (pay the money) that it's being implemented everywhere in your business. Lets face it there is so many areas in various business sectors which does things using antique methods which cost lots of money. If the people who drove those businesses only knew the money making potential of automating these things using software applications.
In conclusion:
I disagree with the statement that people writing software should study MBA... and am for people that study MBA should learn software engineering.
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence."
<< please vote!! >>
modified 9-Sep-13 8:48am.
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