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 a 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 sys- tems with OO-interfaces and the ongoing developments in the realm of „business objects“ (e.g. OMG BODTF, 1999). Therefore, in the summer-semester 1999 an ex- perimental lecture was introduced, which teaches MBA students the fundamental concpets of procedural and ob- ject-oriented concepts. To allow them to experiment and build hand-on experience a language was chosen that 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.