A significant challenge faced by engineers aspiring to enter technical management is the need for more experience in management and business operations necessary to lead cross-disciplinary teams. Our Master of Business and Science (MBS) Engineering Management concentration aims to bridge this gap by providing students with the essential skills and knowledge to become successful managers.
Through an interdisciplinary curriculum, students tailor their professional journey by selecting from one of five different pathways and a wide range of technical electives. One core course in this concentration is Fundamentals of Systems Engineering for Engineering Management, which is crucial for engineers whether they manage large organizations or individual assignments.
About the Instructor
The course is taught by Dr. Steven Richman, who has taught at the Professional Science Master’s program since 2012. He also developed and teaches another MBS course, Essentials of Cybersecurity and Secure Systems.
Dr. Richman holds a Ph.D. and Master of Science degree from NYU Polytechnic Institute and a Bachelor of Science degree from City College of New York. He also completed the MS Computer Science program at AT&T Bell Labs and holds Executive MBA certificates in Engineering Economics, Business Economics, and Finance from the AT&T/Wharton Program.
Since 2009, Richman has served as a part-time professor at the University of Maryland’s Global Campus, teaching in the Cyber Security Technology Master’s degree program. He has 37 publications, more than half in security, and 29 patents (with 5 patents pending). He is certified as an Information System Security Specialist (CISSP). He is a senior life member of the IEEE and a member of the Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi honor societies.
Before his academic career, Richman held various leadership roles at AT&T, Lucent Technologies, and Alcatel-Lucent within Bell Labs. He was also a Senior Engineer at Signatron, Inc., where he helped develop methods for high-speed, reliable, and secure data communications.
In his free time, Richman enjoys amateur radio, painting, bicycling, and golf.
An Inside Look
Fundamentals of Systems Engineering for Engineering Management was designed to bridge the gap between engineering management and systems engineering principles using Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). MBSE is a critical methodology that employs digital modeling and simulation to design systems, offering an interactive approach to managing complex systems and interfaces.
“The course is partially based on a new product realization process I developed for an AT&T Business Unit many years ago,” said Richman.
In this course, students develop essential skills as engineers, business analysts, or managers. Key learning outcomes include how to increase the probability of successful system architecture and design through classical system engineering processes, developing the ability to create system functional and physical architectures using an MBSE approach, and learning to work effectively in teams.
The course also offers hands-on use of the GENESYS tool for collaboratively creating architectures. It also incorporates current events to reinforce course material, making it relevant for industry-interested students.
“Although having a technical background is helpful for success in the course, having the desire to learn and investing the time will help non-technical students do just as well,” said Richman.
In Systems Engineering, students will gain practical skills such as:
- Voice of customer (VoC) interviewing. This customer-centric approach provides deep insights into customers’ pain points and challenges, allowing the team to improve the product experience.
- Translation of stakeholder needs to technical requirements.
- Use of Pugh’s Matrix to determine preferred concepts. This is one of the most effective decision-making tools for comparing multiple alternatives and finding one or more appropriate solutions to investigate
- External Systems Diagrams, Context Diagrams, IDEF0 and Use Case Sequence Diagrams used in architecture modeling approach.
- Use case definition of system capabilities.
The course is applicable to any engineering or business analysis role, whether as an individual contributor or manager. Additionally, these skills are practical for designing processes, organizations, databases, and even home projects.
“Students often contact me well after having taken the class to say how the material has helped them do very well in their workplace,” Richman noted.
“There are other systems engineering processes such as waterfall, spiral, object-oriented, extreme engineering, etc. Once a student has learned the classical approach in this course, they can easily transition to different models used in their workplace,” Richman explained. “The analogy is learning one programming language and then quickly adapting to another when needed.”
To learn more about the course and how it can enhance your career, visit the MBS course catalog page.