In this world of complexity and interconnectivity, militaries, governments, corporations, and small businesses alike are deeply dependent on the correct and continuous functioning of systems that support their business and mission imperatives. There is a pressing need to ensure that these systems are designed and implemented so that they can operate correctly (and continuously) in the face of adverse conditions – either naturally occurring or created by human actors, either deliberate or unintentional.
Systems Engineering (SE) is a branch of engineering that provides methods and processes to deal with systematic development of complex, complicated systems. Systems Security Engineering (SSE) is a sub-discipline of SE that concerns itself with resilience under adverse conditions. SSE provides the framework necessary to establish the cyber mission/business assurance (CMA) requirements for systems that organizations depend on and subsequently provides the necessary cybersecurity perspective on all phases and elements of systems engineering.
This is a three-course certificate that describes the processes, activities, and tasks necessary to conduct the SSE to achieve a measured mission assurance quality in a system. The three courses cover the systems security aspects from the NIST SP 800-160 vol 1:2018 of the thirty systems engineering processes that are described in ISO 15288 Systems Engineering Life Cycle Processes, and how they are applied in a mission assurance context during system development, implementation, and operations.
What Will You Learn?
- A structured engineering method, using standards and guidance, to realize systems that have adequate security to meet the desired mission assurance needs from the business or operational authority
- How to practically 'design security in' for complex IT/OT systems to improve their resiliency/survivability to deliver mission/business capability with deterministic assurance at the lowest total cost of ownership.
Who Should Take This Certificate?
- Project managers
- Junior engineers (both pre- and post-graduation)
- Senior engineers looking to broaden their breadth of knowledge
- Junior and senior technicians/technologists
- analysts, innovators, technologists, designers, developers, project managers, system thinkers, and leaders from various fields where understanding complex systems is important to product and project success
How Will You Benefit?
The Certificate in Systems Engineering and Complex Project Management can help you:
- learn to use systems thinking to design secure, resilient systems that reliably achieve their mission goals.
- use a cybersecurity risk framework to turn stakeholder security needs into engineering requirements that guarantee mission success.
- apply engineering and security design processes to build the right level of security to protect critical missions.
- verify and validate system integration to objectively prove that security and mission assurance needs are met.
- assess and measure security in an operational environment to meet and maintain the mission/business assurance and desired risk to mission achievement.
Fees and Schedule
The fee for the first course is $1,495.00. The fees for the subsequent courses will be updated soon. Please note that textbooks are not included.
This online certificate consists of three courses. Live online sessions are every second Wednesday, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time (AST).
Required:
- Course I: Introduction to Systems Security Engineering - $1,495.00
- Course II: Systems Security Engineering Development and Implementation for Mission/Business Assured Capabilities (in-development)
- Course III: Systems Security Engineering Cyber Damage Control (in-development)
Note: Your registration is not guaranteed until your seat is confirmed and our Registration Office has contacted you. Fees are based on the current academic year and are subject to change. No deferral of the non-refundable deposit or program fees is allowed. Text and materials related to courses may constitute an additional cost.
Certificate Requirements
It is highly recommended that participants complete the three courses in sequential order. The certificate is awarded after the completion of all three courses, including all quizzes, assignments, and exams. This represents approximately 198 hours of training, including online sessions, home study, assignments, and exam preparation. The participants must attain a minimum of 70% for each course.
For assistance or more information, please contact openlearning@dal.ca.
Recognition of Prior Learning
It may be possible to receive advanced standing in this certificate based on your prior learning from work or life experience. We provide two types of recognition of prior learning:
Prior Certified Learning: Assessment of prior coursework or training through a professional training provider, for the purpose of advanced standing. Examples of certified learning may include university or college coursework, military training, accredited certificates, workplace training programs, etc.
Prior Experiential Learning: Assessment of previous work and life learning that may be equivalent to learning outcomes of university courses/programs, for the purpose of advanced standing. Relevant prior learning may come from work or volunteer experience, participation on committees or boards, independent study, etc.