The Operations and Technology Management (OTM) major focuses on the design, creation, and delivery of products and services to satisfy customer needs. It equips students with the essential tools and strategies to use resources efficiently, make necessary trade-offs, and strategically redesign or restructure operations. OTM majors distinguish themselves by strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities together with the ability to provide high-level managerial insights into value-based service and production management.
OTM majors have many career opportunities due to their process orientation and analytical training. They are especially well-equipped for positions in consulting, project management, service operations management, technology management, manufacturing management, and business analytics.
Related Student Organizations
Badger Operations Association
Badger Consulting Club
Wisconsin Consulting Club
American Society for Quality
How to Get in
Current UW–Madison Students
| Requirements | Details |
|---|---|
| How to get in | Application required. Meeting the requirements listed below does not guarantee admission. (https://admissions.wsb.wisc.edu/BbaPreBusiness) |
| Courses required to get in | Students are required to complete each of the 4 requirements below. Requirements can be completed via coursework, test credit, transfer work, or placement exam (if applicable). Communication A Quantitative Reasoning A Economics Human Behavior |
| GPA requirements to get in | Minimum 3.0 UW-Madison GPA. |
| Credits required to get in |
|
| Other |
|
| Semester | Deadline to apply | Decision notification timeline |
|---|---|---|
| To apply for a fall start | Mid March | On or before July 1st. |
| To apply for a spring start | This program does not accept applications to start in the spring. | |
| To apply for a summer start | This program does not accept applications to start in the summer. |
Prospective First-Year Applicants
All prospective UW–Madison students must apply through the central Office of Admissions and Recruitment. Prospective high school students may be considered for direct admission to Business based on their application to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Simply list a Business interest as your top academic area of interest on the University application.
Prospective Transfer Applicants
Transfer students at University of Wisconsin System campuses or Wisconsin Technical Colleges may apply separately for admission to both the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the School of Business during the spring term for fall enrollment. Information for prospective transfer students can be found here: https://business.wisc.edu/undergraduate/admissions/transfer-students/.
Additional Information
Students declared in Business: Operations and Technology Management cannot earn the Summer Certificate in Business Fundamentals, Certificate in Business, or the Certificate in Entrepreneurship due to curriculum overlap.
University General Education Requirements
All undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison are required to fulfill a minimum set of common university general education requirements to ensure that every graduate acquires the essential core of an undergraduate education. This core establishes a foundation for living a productive life, being a citizen of the world, appreciating aesthetic values, and engaging in lifelong learning in a continually changing world. Various schools and colleges will have requirements in addition to the requirements listed below. Consult your advisor for assistance, as needed. For additional information, see the university Undergraduate General Education Requirements section of the Guide.
| General Education |
* The mortarboard symbol appears before the title of any course that fulfills one of the Communication Part A or Part B, Ethnic Studies, or Quantitative Reasoning Part A or Part B requirements. |
School of Business Requirements
The Wisconsin Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program combines UW–Madison’s general liberal education requirements, broad coverage of core business disciplines, and cutting-edge signature courses to create a strong academic foundation upon which students delve deeply into their majors.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| School of Business BBA Requirements | ||
| Complete requirements: | ||
School of Business Liberal Studies Requirements | ||
Business Fundamentals Requirement | ||
Business Core Requirement | ||
Business Signature Requirement | ||
Business: Operations and Technology Management (OTM) Major Requirements
It is recommended that the undergraduate core course OTM 300 Operations and Supply Chain Management be taken as early as possible in preparation for this major.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| OTM 351 | Business Process Improvement | 3 |
| OTM 451 | Service Operations Management | 3 |
| OTM 452 | Project Management | 3 |
| OTM 453 | Operations Analytics | 3 |
| Elective Coursework | 6 | |
| Select a minimum of 6 additional credits from OTM and/or INFO SYS | ||
| Total Credits | 18 | |
University Degree Requirements
| Total Degree | To receive a bachelor's degree from UW–Madison, students must earn a minimum of 120 degree credits. The requirements for some programs may exceed 120 degree credits. Students should consult with their college or department advisor for information on specific credit requirements. |
| Residency | Degree candidates are required to earn a minimum of 30 credits in residence at UW–Madison. "In residence" means on the UW–Madison campus with an undergraduate degree classification. “In residence” credit also includes UW–Madison courses offered in distance or online formats and credits earned in UW–Madison Study Abroad/Study Away programs. |
| Quality of Work | Undergraduate students must maintain the minimum grade point average specified by the school, college, or academic program to remain in good academic standing. Students whose academic performance drops below these minimum thresholds will be placed on academic probation. |
Learning Outcomes
- Understand how to analyze and evaluate business processes combined with a capability for improving those processes.
- Understand how the effects of increased utilization and variability impact process capacity and flow times, and will be able to suggest approaches to improve system performance.
- Build analytical models to solve business problems.
- Articulate the commonalities and differences between service and manufacturing processes, and be able to manage and make improvements within either context.
- Analyze and implement operational business decisions from both strategic and tactical perspectives.
Four-Year Plan
This is a sample four-year plan for students directly admitted into the School of Business from high school. We encourage all students to consult with their academic advisor to develop an individualized plan that meets their specific needs.
| Freshman | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall | Credits | Spring | Credits |
| Communications A | 3 | PSYCH 202, SOC 211, ANTHRO 104, GEN&WS 102, or HDFS 263 (Human Behavior) | 3-4 |
| ECON 101 or 111 | 4 | Ethnic Studies | 3 |
| MATH 211 or 221 | 4-5 | Science | 3 |
| GEN BUS 110 | 1 | GEN BUS 306 | 3 |
| GEN BUS 106 | 1 | ECON 102 or 111 | 4 |
| 13-14 | 16-17 | ||
| Sophomore | |||
| Fall | Credits | Spring | Credits |
| ACCT I S 100 | 3 | ACCT I S 211 | 3 |
| GEN BUS 307 | 3 | MARKETNG 300 | 3 |
| OTM 300 | 3 | OTM Elective (either OTM or INFO SYS prefix) | 3 |
| GEN BUS 360 | 3 | OTM 351 | 3 |
| GEN BUS/DS 240, 250, or 308 (Take One) | 2 | Science | 3 |
| 14 | 15 | ||
| Junior | |||
| Fall | Credits | Spring | Credits |
| Literature | 3 | PHILOS 241, 243, 341, or 441 (Ethics) | 3-4 |
| FINANCE/ECON 300 | 3 | M H R 300 | 3 |
| OTM 451 | 3 | OTM 453 | 3 |
| Humanities | 3 | GEN BUS 250, 240, or 308 (Take One) | 2 |
| Elective | 3 | Elective | 4 |
| 15 | 15-16 | ||
| Senior | |||
| Fall | Credits | Spring | Credits |
| GEN BUS 400 | 3 | GEN BUS 301 | 3 |
| OTM 452 | 3 | R M I 300, REAL EST 306, INTL BUS 200, or INFO SYS 322 (Take One) | 3 |
| OTM Elective (either OTM or INFO SYS prefix) | 3 | Elective | 3 |
| Elective | 3 | Elective | 3 |
| Elective | 4 | Elective | 4 |
| 16 | 16 | ||
| Total Credits 120-123 | |||
Advising and Careers
Advising
Advising is an integral part of any student’s educational journey in the School of Business Undergraduate Program. Starting at Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration (SOAR), we encourage all students to connect with academic advisors. Business academic advisors have a wealth of knowledge about courses on campus, as well as policies and procedures.
Business career coaches help students with career exploration, internships, resumes, job search, interviewing, and more. We encourage students to connect with their career coach once they arrive on campus.
Business academic advisors and career coaches are passionate about student success. Students experiencing academic difficulty or personal struggles are encouraged to talk to their advisor about how their individual situation may affect their academic performance.
Assigned Academic and Career Coaches
Admitted business students will have one assigned academic advisor. Career coaches are assigned by academic major to be able to provide industry-specific career guidance. If a student has more than one major, they may have more than one assigned career coach. Students can find their assigned advisor and coach by logging into the Starfish portal through MyUW.
For students not yet admitted to the School of Business, there is a team of pre-business advisors available.
Accessing Advising
Drop-in advising and scheduled appointments are available for admitted business students. Pre-business students may also schedule an appointment with a pre-business academic advisor or utilize drop-in academic advising.
For more information on accessing academic advising, please see our Academic Advising page.
For more information on accessing career coaching, please see our Career Coaching page.
Careers
All products and services, from cars to surgeries to consulting, are delivered by organized systems. It is the job of operations managers to make sure those activities occur when they are needed, in the right way, with the right quality, and in the right quantity. Operations management designs and oversees the transformation of inputs, such as labor, equipment, facilities, materials, energy, and information, into goods and services for customers. To make this all happen, the operations function is responsible for critical activities such as process design, resource planning, scheduling, and quality management.
Common Career Paths
Process Analysis and Improvement
A process or improvement analyst can serve many roles in an organization. Overall, they facilitate process workflow modeling in order to collaborate on process improvements. They create process documentation and workflows as well as knowledge articles and self-service guidance. A process or improvement analyst may review information and trends at a company to ensure that they are achieving the desired results and that the services are meeting the agreed upon services. They identify issues and risks, as well as bring inconsistencies and problems to the attention of management and then participate in problem resolution. They extract reports and provide a high-level analysis of data for review. They also understand policies and procedures and their impact on workflow.
Project Management
Project managers are responsible for client engagements from the planning phase through implementation and delivery. Project management involves determining the scope of client engagements, allocating resources to implementation teams, and determining effective approaches to work completion. Those working in this area must be able to meet deadlines and to interact extensively with clients, developers, and external departments. A project manager may also be required to design performance and expense comparisons. Above all else, project management is concerned with ensuring accuracy and quality of client deliverables.
Planning and Analytics
Planning and analytics is the forward-looking process of coordinating assets to optimize delivery of goods, services, and information from supplier to customer, balancing supply and demand. Planning is necessary at just about every stage in the supply chain. Different planning roles include supply chain planner, demand planner, and inventory planner.
Management Consulting – Specialist
Both large and boutique consulting firms hire talent to focus on specific practice areas or industries (i.e., specialists). These firms and their employees provide deep expertise on a particular topic area or industry for their clients. These niche areas require a higher level of expertise and personnel in these areas are usually referred to as SMEs (Subject Matter Experts). Consultants in this pathway have a more focused and specialized path, while still serving a variety of clients. There are many boutique firms that only consult in one of these specialties.
Operations and Process:
Support clients and provide guidance around increasing efficiencies across the entire value chain. This can include cost reduction, operational improvements, optimization of technology or processes, and more.
Supply Chain:
Work on the value delivery chain that encompasses suppliers all the way to customer delivery of the intended products/services. Supply chain management consultants traditionally work on the improvement of some portion of this value chain such as logistics of in-bound freight, or reduction in working capital (inventory) as examples.
General Management
Experience working within the operations function of an organization is excellent preparation for managerial roles within the business from product or process manager through facilities manager through C-level roles such as COO or CEO. This is true in companies that provide services to their customers as well as in firms that make products for their customers. Today’s businesses favor leaders with operations experience.
Please visit our website for further details about potential career areas and responsibilities.
More information on Career Pathways.
Accreditation
AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
Accreditation status: Accredited. Next accreditation review: 2026–2027.