Why Study Programming?

• Programming is one of the fundamental skills of people in the IT world.
  • It is not an absolute requirement to enter the field
  • But it is an incredibly valuable skill.
• It teaches you:
  • Algorithmic thinking (one of the goals of this class)
  • Problem Solving (another goal of this class).
• You can problem solve without being able to program
  • But programming provides a formal framework for this activity.
• It provides a tool for automating solutions to problems.
• It is required for the CIS degree
  • Scroll down to the Major section
  • Look at the courses that involve programming.
• Notice the job descriptions on the CIS page.
• If we look at the BLS.gov pages relating to these careers
  • For a list of related jobs
  • Look at a few of these jobs.
• In the end
  • You probably can't design applications/programs/web pages unless you know how to code.
  • You will be at a disadvantage supervising people who perform these tasks if you don't know what they do.
  • You will understand high level systems much better if you know how to program.