Systems Engineering

Increase your understanding of the systems engineering processes, standard development models, strategies, terminology and products produced over the systems development life-cycle. Familiarize yourself with the concepts of systems engineering, and establish the foundation for more in-depth systems engineering activities such as requirements engineering, design, integration, verification and validation. Participants gain knowledge of the entire systems development life-cycle and key systems management activities such as configuration management, technical reviews, risk management, and systems engineering planning.

Familiarize yourself with an effective method for defining a set of requirements for a system. The focus is on the initial problem space definition, defining user needs, concept of operations, systems, segment, subsystem requirements, and architecture. Gain an understanding of the following five key requirements engineering activities: elicitation of requirements, documentation and specifications, analysis and functional decomposition, requirements management, and verification and validation of requirements. Learn about the principles and characteristics of organizing a well written requirements specification.

Increase your knowledge of the system design and integration phases associated with the systems engineering process. Learn about design decision analysis based on requirements, interface management across in-house disciplines, supplier and customer. An emphasis is place on design management and integration methods such as risk management, Integrated Master Plan/Integrated Master Schedule (IMP/IMS), Work Breakdown Structure, Technical Performance Measurement (TPM), and technical reviews/audits for measuring, tracking and validating the systems design and integration process.

Expand your knowledge of test and evaluation, analysis, demonstration, and examination as methods of inspection for proving design capabilities compliance with requirements. A focus is placed on tools and techniques utilized to manage the complete verification process. Learn how to structure a traceable flow of planning strings from the requirements in specifications through verification requirements, verification plans, procedures and reports. Integrated planning and reporting structures are presented as well as the utility of computer databases.

Take your next career step and learn the advanced engineering principles that are needed to analyze and engineer complex systems. Learn to use a conceptual design tool to model, explore and understand the complex system problem space and discover alternative solutions. Learn how to translate system requirements into workable system implementations using conceptual models. Through in-class modeling of a real-world problem, gain an understanding and appreciation for the many benefits of advanced simulation-based engineering.

Increase your knowledge of key systems engineering decision making methods and tools that every systems engineer must know. Learn how to achieve the best possible balanced solution within terms of performance, delivery, and cost in today's systems engineering environment. Gain an understanding of how to synthesize technical management solutions based on principles and practices such as, Integrated Product Process Development (IPPD), Kepner-Tregoe Methodologies, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Taguchi Methods and Design of Experiments (DOE), Statistical Process Control (SPC), Six Sigma concepts and practices with emphasis on inferential statistics, and risk/opportunity management.

Net-Centric Operations (NCO) is an environment where collaboration between platforms, systems, and devices, such as satellites, aircraft, or PDAs, is possible. Participants learn the application of System-of-Systems Engineering (SoSE) Process to NCO and further their understanding of the DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF). Systems Engineers need a standard language for analyzing, specifying, designing, verifying and validating systems. An architecture centric, model-based approach is reviewed in detail the using the unified modeling language (UML) and the latest SysML methods to model the requirements and functional analysis.

Expand your knowledge of different net-centric architecture frameworks. Increase your understanding of the different architecture frameworks, such as the DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF), Ministry of Defense Architecture Framework (MODAF), Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), Zachman Framework, and Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework. The purpose of the DoD Architecture Framework (DoDAF) is to provide guidance for describing architectures and the purpose of the Zachman Framework focuses on providing multiple perspectives of the overall architecture and a categorization of the architecture. In addition, participants gain knowledge of UPDM (UML Profile for DoDAF and MODAF) and are introduced to the definition of architecture reference models (ARM) and the types of ARM. Service-Oriented Architecture and executable architecture are also introduced.

This course provides engineering, information technology and science professionals with the tools to write effective documents. Identify how the intended audience for a document affects its style, format and content. Distinguish central concepts from details in structuring writing, organizing your thoughts and developing them logically to build evidence and make a persuasive argument, write clearly and concisely, and self-edit. You'll submit frequent writing assignments online, act as peer editors, participate in class discussions, and read and analyze class texts. Topics include the challenges of scientific writing, writing summaries, identifying and correcting common writing problems, creating persuasive proposals, and revising documents for maximum effectiveness.