MPCS 51240 Product Management (Spring 2026)

Section 1
Instructor(s) Almhana, Rafi (ralmhana)
Location Crerar 298
Meeting Times Thursday 5:30pm - 8:30pm
Fulfills Elective Specialization - Software Engineering (SE-2)

Syllabus

Course Overview [WATCH VIDEO]
 
Product management is a cross-disciplinary endeavor that sits at the intersection of software engineering, marketing, and the user experience. Product managers are expected to create products in support of business objectives, ensuring that products deliver value to customers and are feasible to build within varying sets of constraints. In this course, we will introduce the role of the product manager and demonstrate the challenges faced by product managers. We will explore approaches for managing the tension that exists between software development and product delivery using the minimum viable product and the product roadmap as critical tools.

Course Prerequisites

Must have completed MPCS 51036, 51040, 51042, 51046, 51100, CAPP 30122, MACS 30122, or have a Core Waiver for Programming.

Other Prerequisites

This course assumes no prior knowledge of product management concepts or specific technologies. However, you may find some of the material easier to put into perspective if you're familiar with software design patterns, or have taken one of the other software engineering courses offered in the MPCS.

This course requires competency in Unix and Linux. If you attended the MPCS Unix Bootcamp you covered the required material. If you did not, please review the UChicago CS Student Resource Guide here: https://uchicago-cs.github.io/student-resource-guide/.

Course request information for non-MPCS students: https://masters.cs.uchicago.edu/student-resources/non-mpcs-student-course-requests/

Overlapping Classes

This class is scheduled at a time that conflicts with these other classes:

  • MPCS 55001-1 -- Algorithms
  • MPCS 51220-1 -- Applied Software Engineering

Eligible Programs

MS in Computational Analysis in Public Policy (Year 2) MA in Computational Social Science (Year 2) Bx/MS in Computer Science (Option 2: Professionally-oriented - CS Majors) Bx/MS in Computer Science (Option 3: Profesionally-oriented - Non-CS Majors) Masters Program in Computer Science