Business Intelligence specialization
The Business Intelligence (BI) specialization builds analytical, managerial and baseline technical skills to help you learn to manage the process of transforming data into business insights. The MSIM program provides pathways to ensure students from all technical backgrounds are able to succeed in this specialization.
Request program information
Our enrollment coaches can help you determine if MSIM is right for you. Your coach can also support you as you apply and enroll.
Business Intelligence specialization overview
This specialization has a managerial/strategic focus but also incorporates modern analytics and data warehousing toolsets to provide foundational exposure to key technologies.
UW MSIM students can complete the Business Intelligence (BI) specialization across any of the three degree tracks offered: Early-Career, Early-Career Accelerated, and Mid-Career. Compare our degree tracks to find the path best suited for you.
Skills developed:
Derive insights from data by building analytical, managerial and baseline technical skills.
Design, implement and leverage business intelligence systems from a managerial and strategic lens.
Develop relational database and SQL knowledge and be exposed to key concepts, such as dimensional data modeling; extracting, transforming and loading data (ETL); machine learning; online analytical processing (OLAP); data warehouse architecture.
Develop data visualizations for strategic management.
Elective courses in the Business Intelligence specialization
This specialization consists of three courses on business intelligence and data science that will help you hone your skills across key concepts, systems and technical tools through a managerial lens.
Learn more about the core, elective and Capstone/practicum courses in the UW MSIM curriculum and the career options available to MSIM graduates.
Introduces a broad, non-technical overview of key concepts, skills, and technologies used in “data science”. Provides a high-level introduction to common data science pipelines, such as experimental design, data collection and storage, basic analytics, machine learning, and data visualization, focusing on analyzing in real-world datasets using industry standard statistical packages.
Provides a broad overview of business intelligence (BI) including foundational BI concepts, strategies, techniques, and technologies. Primary emphasis is on the strategic and managerial perspective, focusing on how one designs, implements, and leverages business intelligence systems and strategies in management and leadership roles.
Introduces fundamentals of how to architect and develop business intelligence systems for decision making. Topics include dimensional data modeling; extracting, transforming, and loading data (ETL); online analytical processing (OLAP); data warehouse architecture; developing data visualizations to answer key business questions. Prerequisite: IMT 576; recommended: students are expected to have basic relational database and SQL knowledge. IMT 543 is recommended for students without this knowledge.
Job titles reported by recent MSIM graduates
- Business analyst
- Business intelligence developer
- Business development consultant
- Market research analyst
- Program manager
- Software engineer
- Solutions engineer
“[Business Intelligence] also gives me the tools to analyze data and find insights that could be lost without a technical understanding of the information available.”
Julieta Sanchez, ‘17
Hear from one of our BI students
BI industry stats
$93,600
is the median advertised salary for business intelligence jobs requiring a master’s.
142,000+
business intelligence jobs are available.
+19.7%
is the projected growth rate for business intelligence occupations over the next decade.
Source: Lightcast Occupations and Job Postings, April 2022 to March 2023.
Alumni spotlight
Meet Marquisha Hicks, a ‘22 alum who earned her MSIM degree online from her home in California. Learn about her student experience and how the Business Intelligence specialization advanced her career as an operations unit chief for a mission-critical capitation payment system.
Scheduled events
On-demand content
Admissions information
Before you apply, please thoroughly research the UW iSchool and the MSIM program. Accordingly, you should be familiar with the vision, mission and values of the iSchool and have a general understanding of the academic design of the MSIM program, including its curriculum and specializations. Please be sure to use this foundational knowledge as the basis for responding to the prompts on the application. If you have questions or need help applying, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Request program information
Our enrollment coaches can help you determine if MSIM is right for you. Your coach can also support you as you apply and enroll.
Featured articles
