A Syllabus for Introducing MBA Students to Procedural and Object-oriented Programming (Object Rexx)

MBA students are exposed to information systems which can be controlled by the means of macro-languages and are faced with new type of information systems which employ the object-oriented paradigm. (e.g. SAP, 1999) With no idea about (procedural and) especially object-oriented concepts, it is impossible for such students to comprehend and evaluate the new breed of ERP systems and the development in the realm of „business objects“ (e.g. OMG BODTF, 1999). Therefore, in the summer-semester 1999 an experimental lecture was introduced which teaches MBA students the fundamental concpets of procedural and object-oriented concepts. To allow them to experiment and build hand-on experiience a language was chosen which is known for its simple and easy syntax, yet powerful object model: Object Rexx. The devised syllabus, which teaches the fundamental concepts of procedural and object-oriented programming is layed out and explained in this article.i MBA Students At the WU there are over 25,000 MBA students who learn the fundamentals of business administration. The curriculum and the structure of the studies were layed out at an IAIM conference. (Flatscher, 1993) Basically, the studies are divided into two parts, each lasting a minimum of two years. It is in the second part of the studies, where MBA students are allowed to choose up to two specialized studies of Business Administration like „Tourism“, „Fi-nance “ or „Management Information Systems“. For teach-ing MIS related classes a minimum of 12 hours must be taken. Figure 1 sketches the available MIS-classes as o