Learn to decide and communicate like an IT manager: Designing a business game for IS education

This article presents the design of a business game as an effective and efficient possibility to introduce results of the latest IT research and expertise into vocational and academic training. A CIO decision framework - in connection with empirical results - constitutes the fundament for this computer-supported game. The "CIO - High Performance Business Simulation", which has already been used successfully for the practical training with students, delivers a realistic insight into the complexity of IT and business management. Furthermore it opens different options for a systematic training on the way to an IT executive. Purposeful communication, assertiveness compared with the other team members and a high level of knowledge are required in order to achieve sustained success with the company in the game. The main building blocks, design concepts and criteria for the transformation of the theoretical demands into a business game are pointed out in this article.