Computer Based Role Playing Simulations for Executive IT Education

These exercises use the concept of role playing with computer based simulations to supply the participant with a concentrated time-based management experience. These simulations may be weaved with education in a variety of quantitative and qualitative management concepts and principles. 

Information Technology Organization Flight Simulator - in this simulation participants take on roles including Chief Information officer, Chief Administrative Officer and IT Project Manager. Depending on the role the participant will make decisions about human resource functions (hiring and firing, training), project management (schedule push, testing fractions) and project balance (workload analysis, infrastructure investment, organizational performance measurement). Teams compete to balance and maintain efficiency in product (computer code) development.

Information Security War Gaming System In this simulation participants take on Black Hat/White hat roles to learn about the types of defense that may be used to combat the myriad of attacks on computer networks.

Promotion Policy Simulator This simulation that may be utilized for better understanding the dynamics involved with retaining and promoting personnel including uncontrollable employment market dynamics. In this simulation personnel move through a pipeline into Junior, Mid Level, and Senior "pools. The participants must make decisions about bonuses, retention, and promotion schedules.

The System Development Process Management Flight Simulator Participants develop an integrated hardware and software system, integrate it, test, and then release it to a market

Cyber Protect  The simulation revolves around the purchase and application of information security countermeasures in a local area network environment. The user must strategize over four quarters to apply the most effective protective measures with a limited budget. Users receive a score from 0 to 100 to indicate how well they performed in staving off potential hacker attacks.

Balanced Scorecard Simulation This simulation was built through a cooperative effort from Norton and Kaplan, Harvard Business School Publishing, and High Performing Systems, Inc of Hanover NH. It involves simulating the differences that might be expected in developing a software development company using traditional financial measurement techniques versus the balanced scorecard approach where other equally important factors are included in assessing a company's value and growth.

Note:Management areas of focus in these simulations include Forrester's System Dynamics, Senge's System Thinking, Csikszentmihalyi's Flow Theory, Tversky and Kahneman's Cognitive Limitations and Biases, Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard, The U.S. Department of Defense's Defense in Depth, Abdel-Hamid's Software Project Dynamics.