Curriculum analyses of a master of science in management program by quality function deployment.

Southern Wesleyan University (SWU) offers the Master of Science in Management (M.S.M.) program on the main campus and at five regional sites throughout South Carolina. The curriculum was designed with the input from expert practitioners serving in the capacity of a Business Academic Advisory Board (BAAB). Faculty designed the courses for the program to meet the terminal competencies as suggested by the BAAB. This communication analyzes in detail the M.S.M. curriculum by employing a quality tool called Quality Function Deployment (QFD). Specifically we measured the perceived: 1) importance of each competency for success in the workplace, 2) level of mastery that should be required for each competency, 3) effectiveness each course addressed the terminal competencies not only in their specific cluster, but also throughout the curriculum, 4) relative importance of each course in the curriculum, and 5) number of intense learning experiences available for the students to master each competency at the designated mastery level. With these data we were able to analyze the strengths of our curriculum and our modules, including those that required modification to address and assess the expected outcomes more fully.