Joint Executive Systems Engineering and Management - Curriculum 721 (DL)

Program Officer

Joseph Sweeney, Lecturer

Spanagel 448

 

[phone]

[e-mail]

Academic Associate

Kristin Giammarco, Associate Professor

Aberdeen, MD

 

[phone]

[e-mail]

Brief Overview

The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), as a partner in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) "Educational Consortium for Product Development Leadership in the 21st Century" (PD21), is delivering a joint executive systems engineering and management degree program using distance learning methods to military officers, senior enlisted, federal civilians, and a limited number of defense contractor civilians. The program's joint focus is on joint services, joint engineering-management and joint government-industry. The executive SEM-PD21 degree program is modeled after the graduate program developed jointly by MIT’s School of Engineering and Sloan School of Management. The executive SEM-PD21 degree program is designed to produce a cadre of change agents skilled in engineering and management to bring about dramatic improvements in the way American corporations and the defense industry develop and build new systems and products.

Participants in this unique program are exposed to state-of-the-art concepts and tools, as well as world-class companies, leaders, and cross-industry best practices. Students acquire the basic skills and strategic perspective necessary to become future leaders and senior managers responsible for driving product development and business growth through innovation and to become effective change agents at their organizations. They develop a mindset receptive to change and continuous improvement, an understanding of the enablers to business success, and an enhanced ability to recognize barriers to success early in the product development cycle when corrective actions are least costly.

The SEM-PD21 curriculum is an eight-quarter distance learning curriculum with entry in the Fall quarter, which begins in late September with an on-site two-week kickoff at NPS in Monterey, CA. After the kickoff, classes are taken at students' locations by web teleconferencing or online web-based courses. Students are expected to participate in two or three industry trips during the two-year course of study and a graduation ceremony in Monterey at the completion of the program. There will also be occasional Systems Engineering and Product Development seminars for all SEM-PD21 students within their existing course of study.

SEM-PD21 website: https://nps.edu/PD21

Convenes

Fall

Program Length

24 Months

Requirements for Entry

Candidates for the program must have a baccalaureate degree with a minimum undergraduate GPA of 2.6, and at least one college level mathematics course. An undergraduate degree in engineering or a related scientific or technical field is advantageous for students pursuing the MSSEM degree option from this program. The student must be sponsored by an organization committed to supporting the student's full participation and have at least five years of experience directly related to product development (three years if student holds a master's degree). The eligibility and application requirements can be found at the Joint Executive SEM-PD21 website at: https://nps.edu/PD21.

Degree

Completion of at least one year of study, or at least 48 quarter credit hours beyond a baccalaureate level program, achievement of a mastery of systems and defense management via the 721 curriculum, and completion of an approved thesis report leads to the award of the Master of Science in Systems Engineering Management (MSSEM) degree or the Master of Science in Systems and Defense Management (MSSDM) degree. Refer to the program website at https://nps.edu/PD21 for requirements particular to each degree. 

Curriculum Sponsors

Any federal organization or defense contractor can sponsor students into the SEM-PD21 program. Students use the elective track options to tailor their degree to their career trajectory at the sponsoring organization. For example, students who select the Advanced Acquisition Studies (218) elective track are prepared for the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) PM Practitioner certification exam while earning the MSSDM degree, and students who select the Systems Engineering Management (171) elective track take additional systems engineering courses and earn the MSSEM degree. Other elective tracks lead to additional NPS certificates in Space Systems, Human Systems Integration, and others as available. Graduates also earn an MIT certificate of recognition signed by Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management and Dean of the MIT School of Engineering.

Outcomes

• System Design. Understand and demonstrate the system design process in a holistic context, applying and integrating methods for both software and hardware aspects of a design. The end-to-end design process should include: identifying capability need; defining requirements; Conducting functional analysis and allocation to hardware, software, and human elements; creating a system functional design; designing a system; deriving and defining requirement specifications; allocating requirement specifications to sub-systems (for hardware, software, and human elements); designing for suitability, including reliability, availability, maintainability, operability, and logistical supportability; performing a system assessment by conducting trade-off studies, evaluating system design alternatives against system capability need expressed as military effectiveness; estimating and analyzing the system cost and risk, including risk mitigation strategies; integrating human elements into the system design; and analyzing and planning for system testing and evaluation.
• Systems Architecting. Perform system architecting, applying and integrating methods for both software and hardware applications. Construct feasible system functional and physical architectures that represent a balanced approach to meeting stakeholder needs and expectations; stated, implied, and derived system requirements; cyber-resiliency objectives; And suitability objectives such as being open, modular, extensible, maintainable, and reusable. Understand system architecture frameworks and their role in architecture development. Use model-based systems engineering techniques to create, define, and develop system architectures. Develop, analyze, and compare alternative architectures against appropriate, system-level evaluation criteria.
• System Integration and Development. Apply the core skills of system integration and development to include integrating relevant technological disciplines that bear on the system effectiveness and cost. Understand system realization methods and processes necessary to transition from design to production, including prototyping, design for producibility, and production methods.
• Engineering Design Analysis. Understands and apply core qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze and select hardware and software system designs. Methods should include problem formulation, alternatives development, alternatives modeling and evaluation, alternatives comparison, optimization, decision analysis, failure analysis, risk analysis, and futures analysis.
• Project Management. Work as a team member or leader on a military systems engineering project. Demonstrate an understanding of project management principles. Demonstrate competence in the planning and management of complex projects. Understand the principles of and apply current industry approaches and technology to manage systems design, integration, test, and evaluation for large engineering projects.
• Systems and Acquisition Process. The graduate will understand the theory of and have an ability to lead program teams and manage the systems acquisition process. This involves the system life cycle process for requirements determination, research and development, funding and budgeting, procurement, systems engineering, including systems of systems, test and evaluation, manufacturing and quality control, integrated logistic support, ownership and disposal; the interrelationship between reliability, maintainability, and logistic support as an element of system effectiveness in defense systems/equipment design; and embedded weapons systems software, particularly related to current policies and standards, software metrics, risk management, inspections, testing, integration, and post deployment software support.
• Engineering Risk-Benefit Analysis. The graduate will be able to apply the principles of probabilistic risk assessment in the context of systems analysis decision problems. This includes a framework for balancing risks and benefits, and analysis under conditions of large financial and technological uncertainties.
• Operations Management. The graduate will be able to apply the principles of design, planning, control, and improvement of manufacturing and service operations. This includes operations strategy, process analysis, project analysis, materials management, production planning and scheduling, quality management, computer-aided manufacturing, capacity and facilities planning, and theory of constraints applied to product development. Graduates will have the ability to apply basic tools and techniques used in analyzing operations, and have the strategic context for making operational decisions.;
• Advanced Leadership and Management Concepts. The graduate will have the ability to apply advanced leadership, management and operations research techniques to defense problems. This includes policy formulations and execution, strategic planning, defense resource allocation, project leadership, cost benefit and cost effectiveness analysis, federal fiscal policy, computer-based information and decision support systems, and complex managerial situations requiring comprehensive integrated leadership abilities.
• Business Theory and Practices. The graduate will have an understanding of the business and operating philosophies, concepts, practices and methodologies of the defense industry with regard to major weapon systems acquisition, particularly the application of sound business practices.
• Analysis, Problem Solving, and Critical Thinking. The graduate will demonstrate the ability to conduct research and analysis, and proficiency in presenting the results in writing and orally by means of a thesis report and a thesis briefing appropriate to this curriculum.
• Evaluation, Innovation, and Creativity. The graduate will demonstrate individual initiative and creativity in the application of the skills and knowledge gained from the SEM-PD21 program. The graduate will select an systems engineering or management problem of importance to DoN/DoD, develop a plan to investigate the problem, analyze all of its aspects, suggest a solution as appropriate, and report the significant findings and recommendations in writing by means of a thesis.

Typical Course of Study

Quarter 1

Course Number	Title	Credits	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
MN3108	Leadership in Product Development		3	2
OS3111	Probability and Statistics for HSI and MOVES		4	0
	-or-
OS3180	Probability and Statistics for Systems Engineering		4	1
SE3810	Systems Engineering Seminar		0	2

Quarter 2

Course Number	Title	Credits	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
SI4021	Systems Engineering for Product Development		4	0
MN3117	Organizational Processes		4	0
SE3810	Systems Engineering Seminar		0	2

Quarter 3

Course Number	Title	Credits	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
SI4022	Systems Architecture for Product Development		4	0
MN3392	Systems and Project Management		4	0
SE3810	Systems Engineering Seminar		0	2

Quarter 4

Course Number	Title	Credits	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
SE3302	System Suitability		3	2
MN3309	Software Acquisition Management for Defense Systems		3	2
SE3810	Systems Engineering Seminar		0	2

Quarter 5

Course Number	Title	Credits	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
SE4353	Risk Analysis and Management for Engineering Systems		3	2
ELECT	MGMT/ENG Elective		0	4
SE3810	Systems Engineering Seminar		0	2

Quarter 6

Course Number	Title	Credits	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
MN4379	Operations Management		4	0
ELECT	MGMT/ENG Elective		0	4
SE3810	Systems Engineering Seminar		0	2

Quarter 7

Course Number	Title	Credits	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
SE0811	Thesis in Systems Engineering		0	8
ELECT	MGMT/ENG Elective		0	4
SE3810	Systems Engineering Seminar		0	2

Quarter 8

Course Number	Title	Credits	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
SE0811	Thesis in Systems Engineering		0	8
ELECT	MGMT/ENG Elective		0	4
SE3810	Systems Engineering Seminar		0	2

Note: Seminar used throughout program but credits given final quarter

Elective Tracks

Sponsors and students selecting the MSSDM degree option have great flexibility in designing their elective structure. Currently, there are numerous specified elective tracks that, when taken with SEM-PD21 core courses, earn participating students additional academic certifications. See program announcement for example elective options. A tailored elective track can be designed by contacting the Program Officer or Academic Associate.