Missouri State, IBM launch IT services degree

Missouri State University and IBM plan to team up on a Bachelor of Science degree in IT service management.

Think of it as a degree in Big Blue's biggest business.

The IT services degree will be the first of its kind in the U.S. and has been "created in collaboration with IBM's IT Service Curriculum." Missouri State confers the degree.

Aside from the obvious benefit of potential employment at IBM this degree program is long overdue. IT is services--managing partners, managing vendors and herding all the outsourced cats that keep a technology department running.

Too often, technology departments aren't equipped to manage these moving parts.

IBM will provide course material such as lab exercises, class assignments and case studies. There will also be role playing exercises to see how customers handle IT outages, changes and upgrades (hope these kids have helmets). Here's the pitch from a statement:

IT Service Management is an emerging discipline for the management of IT services, resources, and systems. An IT service can be defined as any service process delivered by an IT department to support critical business functions. Graduates of Missouri State’s IT Service Management program will be marketable for jobs across a range of industries such as financial services, healthcare and retail, as consultants, architects, IT managers, project managers, IT specialists, marketing and sales leads, entrepreneurs and executives. Through the new curriculum, students will learn to use technology for service delivery and support to better manage people, processes and assets.

Sounds good. And how can IBM turn down a student in a program Big Blue helped create?