PartTime MBA:Will it help

By part-time MBA, I'm assuming your are talking about going back to school part time to get your MBA.

There is often a schism in many companies between the IT people and management. IT proclaims (often rightfully so) that management doesn't havea clue about technology and how it works. Management proclaims (often equally rightfully so) that IT doesn'thave a clue about business processes.

Acheiving an MBA will put you way ahead of your purely technical peers when it comes time to fill positions such as CIO. It may or may not do you any good in your current company depending on how far gone the relationship is between IT and management. At the very least, it might give you credibility when dealing with management ('wow, here's a techie that can speak business'), while still maintaining your credibility with your technical peers.

At the worst, achieving your MBA will allow you to see that your current company is hopless, and your energies might be better spent elsewhere. And it will be a feather in your cap when you do go job hunting because it will allow you to work both sides of the street, IT and management.

It is pretty much a given that an MBA is usually a requirement for anything other than a low-level management position.

Good luck.

An MBA is just one route to learning about business. A good MBA forces you to apply the hard-won lessons of others into your working life by insisting on projects in the work-place to complement the class-work. An MBA is an indicator, no more, of a persons skills and knowledge.
Better routes to progress within a company include finding a mentor, getting involved in projects outside 'IT', looking for business improvement opportunities and making solid, researched proposals to the companies management on how the company can be improved.
Read The 10 Day MBA, it will give you a clue about the issues an MBA is expected to understand.
You must turn your thinking round: Consider cost, profitability, staff issues, business reputation, market position, strategy, national and international economics, finance and politics.
When you can talk like an MBA you will discover that other managers do not talk in MBA-speak. Day to day they are thinking about how to get the next part / program or consultancy to the customer. It is up to senior business managers, including MBA's to be aware of and tackle the 'strategic' issues.
Remember to check the MBA programme and school reputation. Some MBA's are not worth the paper they are written on, let alone the thousands they cost.

An MBA gives you a different framework for thinking. It teaches you skills in areas such as human resource management, marketing, sales and law. It does give you options to change fields and move up the ladder. I've known people who have changed fields with the help of their MBA - such as going into HR. Particularly useful in these times of downturn.

Also with this downturn, management layers are being trimmed and there are certain skills required to take greater part in both strategy and implementation. There is a closer tie between strategy and implementation and managers will be expected to straddle the two.

Even without these, we require these days greater knowledge of business and legal issues. Questions of professional liability and greater responsibility of boards, executives and managers to the governing bodies demand that IT managers are aware of the greater business framework. Awareness of business thinking will also help in the preparation and acceptance of proposals,aligning IT with business strategies and the relevance of IT to business. There are other more mundane things such as recognising the power structures in the organisation, the politics and keeping clear of such issues.

That is not to say that an MBA is a replacement for experience. An MBA just gives you a chance to understand the business phenomena and the tools you have to counter particular situations. It is structured and it prepares you beforehand. Besides, no learning is ever bad.