We have investigated the electronic structure of Cd1_xMn xTe parabolic quantum wells and half-parabolic quantum wells heterostructures in the envelope function approximation using the k · p method. We have considered an external magnetic field applied in two different configurations: in the plane of the layer and in the growth direction. The confined states have been calculated taking into account the effective mass dependence of the Mn concentration and the strain effects. In this work we analyze the giant Zeeman splitting due to applied magnetic fields and we havecompared the energies of the excitonic transitions hh (lh) ->el for the magnetic field in the two considered configurations. Comparison of our results for the half-parabolic quantum wells with available experimental data is made.