Systems Engineering and Program Management (Coursera)

Course 3 of 3 in the Introduction to Systems Engineering Specialization.

What You Will Learn

• Describe the relationship between systems engineering and project management
• Identify risks and risk mitigation strategies
• Describe the three basic types of governmental contracts and their impact on program execution

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Planning the Work
We will begin Course 3 be examining the documentation that is sued to define the scope of a project and then manage to that scope. Unmanaged scope growth is detrimental to the performance of a program and is equally frustrating for both the customer and the supplier. Getting things carefully documented at the outset is key to the early identification of changes in scope. Lets look at the tools of the trade for keeping ourselves on task and focused on meeting the end user's needs.

WEEK 2
Managing Cost and Contracting Fundamentals
In this module, we will learn about how to manage cost on a program. We will look at some considerations for creating a forecast and how to measure performance against the forecast. In the second half of the module, we will go over some contracting fundamentals. I don't want to make anyone into a Contracts Manager, but rather convey some top-level considerations on how various contract types impact behavior on the engineering team.

WEEK 3
Risk, Risk Management, and Change Control Management
In this module, we will learn the process for managing risks and opportunities. Systems Engineers bring a lot to the table for this important task because they have been trained to look at things in terms of system-level impacts and with a lifecycle view. Our goal will be to learn how to develop actionable intelligence that will help your program mitigate the impact of realized risks or prevent their occurrence altogether. In the second half of the Module, we will learn about change management - both from a contractual standpoint as well as managing engineering changes, which are two distinct processes.

WEEK 4
Dealing with Failures
This module could be considered kind of depressing because it is about dealing with failures. However, a little bit of preparation can go a long way to helping the team recover from a disappointing outcome with dignity and professionalism. We will examine the process for establishing and conducting failure reviews. Thankfully, most failures are not terribly catastrophic, but even the more inconsequential failures can benefit from a rigorous investigative process. One of the most important, and often illusive aspects of dealing with a failure is identifying the root cause. We will spend some time learning about a handful of pragmatic tools to assist with this.