Master Certificate in Systems Design and Project Leadership

Description

Leading a development team requires more than just technical expertise; it requires effective leadership and vision.

The Master Certificate from Cornell University’s College of Engineering provides you with the knowledge and tools to become a competent systems designer and project leader. Comprised of both the Customer-Focused Product and Service Design Certificate and the Project Leadership Certificate, this Master Certificate prepares you to meet the interpersonal challenges of team management and helps you build the requisite technical skills involved in successful product and service development. You’ll become an advanced designer and a valued leader in your company.

Created with content from Cornell University’s College of Engineering, this robust program will enable you to:

• Learn a structured methodology for designing products/services the right way.
• Learn to effectively communicate design requirements across an organization.
• Understand how systems interact and “talk” to each other.
• Develop tools that can be applied to a broad range of initiatives.
• Gain confidence in developing new products/services.
• Focus on product/service design without needing expertise in math or engineering principles.
• Manage uncertainties in development projects.
• Build a cohesive project team.
• Understand and prevent the issues that can fragment and undermine team performance.
• Monitor, control, and motivate team members to perform and achieve objectives.
• Exercise political and personal influence without the formal authority to mandate action.
• Mitigate and resolve conflict to ensure the success of the project.

Who Should Enroll in This Certificate?

Enrollment

Courses in this Certificate

• Introduction to Project Leadership

  • A seasoned, successful project leader is both a master of process and an effective people manager. Project leadership requires the ability to make tough decisions, overcome personnel issues and to exercise authority where needed--all while dealing with technical challenges and the restraints of time and cost.

    This course defines the functional role of a project manager and provides a framework for the development process, from brainstorm through to production. To be successful you need to balance technical expertise with a firm grasp on team dynamics and interpersonal relationships.

    This course is beneficial to Project Management Professionals (PMPs) who seek greater responsibility in leading projects and setting up broad organizational initiatives. Regardless of your formal role in project management, you’ll develop leadership skills to become a better project manager and successful leader.

    This course has been approved for 6.0 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Defining Project Management.
    • Organizational Design.
    • Methods of Integration.
    • The Role of the Project Manager.
    • Overcoming Challenges to Project Managers.
    • The Matrix Organization.
    • Managing Uncertainty.
    • The Project Manager at the Personal Level.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Describe the technical and leadership requirements of project management.
    • Design a project that is well adapted to technical and environmental uncertainties.
    • Utilize management/leadership research and theory to define a set of key success factors and behaviors.
    • Overcome typical challenges faced by project managers.
    
    
• Project Teams: Mining Collective Intelligence

  • A work team’s real potential for success lies in its “collective intelligence”: the sum of a workgroup’s individual skills, behaviors and competencies. The more integrity a team has, the better positioned it is to handle uncertainty and see a project through to successful completion. It’s role of the the project leader role to create a work environment where a group’s collective intelligence can be leveraged to the greatest effect.

    This course introduces research-grounded theories behind group dynamics and teaches how to create and maintain group cohesion. Learn to facilitate group problem-solving, and manage the most common challenges to effective group functioning, including a lack of cohesion, the onset of groupthink, and dealing with virtual teams.

    Project leaders who have the theoretical and practical knowledge to identify and capitalize on a group’s collective intelligence tend to be the most successful at achieving desired outcomes.

    This course has been approved for 6.5 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Defining and Describing Teams.
    • Stranded!
    • Characteristics of a Team.
    • Processes and Challenges for Project Teams.
    • How Teams Develop.
    • Creating Cohesion and Work Socialization.
    • Group Facilitation Skills.
    • Common Challenges for Project Managers and Their Teams.
    • Final Discussions.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Build a cohesive and effective project team.
    • Understand how and when to “mine” the collective intelligence of the team to better cope with complexity, difficulty, and ambiguity.
    
    
• Dealing with Difference

  • Difference and diversity can strengthen a group’s collective skills and competencies, but can also lead to dysfunction if not properly managed. The best project leaders take potentially fragmentary elements within a group and use them to their advantage. Overcoming differences and knowing how to manage the collective intelligence of a group can make for a highly effective project team.

    This course focuses on the three main areas of difference--national and functional culture, personality, and learning style--and how different perspectives can create misunderstanding and misalignment within a project team. You’ll work with a variety of organizational frameworks and toolsets designed to bridge differences and develop processes to overcome disconnect, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

    Properly managing collective intelligence and dealing with difference are two key skills associated with a high-functioning project leader. This course will teach you how to develop and master those skills.

    This course has been approved for 6.0 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • National and Functional Culture.
    • The Importance of Difference.
    • Defining Culture.
    • Diagnosing and Overcoming Cultural Challenges.
    • Personality.
    • Defining Personality.
    • Overcoming Personality-Related Challenges.
    • Learning Styles.
    • Defining and Overcoming Challenges Related to Differences in Learning Style.
    • Difference and the Project Manager.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Analyze project teams for potential disconnects as a result of cultural, functional, personality-related, or learning style differences.
    • Minimize the negative effects that difference has on a project team.
    
    
• Earned Value Management

  • How do know precisely whether or not a project is on the path to success if you don't have any benchmarking tools in place? This course introduces you to several powerful performance metrics and analytical tools that can help you determine whether project goals and objectives are being met.

    You’ll learn how to use Earned Value Management, a highly effective project control system that uses measurement tools like breakdown structures, network diagrams, schedules, budgets, and Gantt charts to ensure that things are on track. Your ability to report on progress and project status will greatly impact your reputation as a project leader.

    If a project falls off target, the project leader is responsible for maintaining a tight focus on tasks that add to the value of a project, and establishing a framework for keeping team members and other stakeholders aligned with project objectives.

    This course is anticipated to be approved for approximately 6.0 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Earned Value Method.
    • Control Systems.
    • Calculations and Forecasts.
    • Motivating Employees.
    • Defining and Diagnosing Motivation.
    • The Psychological Contract.
    • Managing Yourself as a Resource.
    • Designing Jobs Appropriately.
    • Helping People to Believe in Themselves.
    • Coaching and Development.
    • How People Learn.
    • Coaching and Development.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Apply an earned value method for assessing degrees of project completion.
    • Create accurate forecasts to communicate time and budget required for project completion.
    • Diagnose and resolve issues of demotivation.
    • Apply best practices in coaching and development situations.
    
    
• Influence Without Authority

  • Workplaces are inherently political. Project leadership can be an especially political endeavor; it’s about exercising influence over others to complete tasks and accomplish goals, with or without the formal authority to mandate action. Whether you work in a matrix organization or lead a cross-functional team, your goal as a project leader is to organize the actions of your team members to ensure the successful completion of a project.

    Project leaders spend a considerable amount of time building networks and relationships among stakeholders and influencers. Learn how to apply your interpersonal and leadership skills and strike a balance between your sometimes conflicting role as individual contributor, functional manager, and project manager.

    This course introduces you to the Power Motivation Inventory, a diagnostic self-inventory model that will assess your capabilities as an influence agent and prepare you to leverage your abilities to great effect. The ability to exercise influence without authority is among most important attributes of a project leader.

    This course has been approved for 6.0 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Power and Influence.
    • The Nature of Power and Influence.
    • Sources of Power in an organization.
    • Strategies of Influence.
    • Introduction to Strategies of Influence.
    • Retribution-based Influence.
    • Rationality-based Influence.
    • Reciprocity-based Influence.
    • Appropriate Selection and Implementation.
    • The Power Motivation Inventory.
    • Sources of Power.
    • Implementing to Maximize Influence.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Develop an understanding of organizations as political systems.
    • Explain the personal and positional sources of power in organizations.
    • Describe strategies for exercising influence; understand the conditions that would make each appropriate; and learn to apply those strategies to a variety of influence opportunities.
    • Develop a plan for increasing personal potency in one’s organization.
    
    
• Conflict Resolution

  • Conflict is inevitable. The best project leaders have a well-developed capacity for managing and resolving conflict.

    Conflict can come from any number of directions: project complexity, misaligned stakeholders, diverse team members, scarcity of resources, and matrix organizational structures—which, by definition, place two sets of managerial values and priorities into tension with each other.

    This course focuses on the approaches that a leader can use to resolve conflict. Participants will assess their own response to conflict using the Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument to determine which approaches are most consistent with their own profile or appropriate to specific situations.

    Principled negotiation, an interest-based technique popularized in the best-selling book Getting To Yes, provides a framework to separate people from problems, focus on their interests and generate and evaluate options. As you emerge from the course you’ll be able to diagnose and resolve conflict in a manner that enhances team cohesiveness and improves the likelihood of successful results.

    This course has been approved for 6.0 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Conflict Resolution in Context.
    • Organizational Conflict.
    • Avoiding Conflict.
    • Focusing on Completion.
    • Accommodation.
    • Compromisation.
    • Collaboration.
    • Principled Negotiation.
    • Separating People from Problems.
    • Focusing on Interests.
    • Generating Options.
    • Evaluating Options.
    • Additional Considerations.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Identify and manage various forms of conflict.
    • Consider several approaches to resolving conflict and adopt one or more that support your profile.
    • Incorporate principled negotiation as a conflict resolution tool.
    
    
• Getting Started on Product and Service Design

  • The commercial viability of a product or service is largely dependent on the integrity of its design process. System design begins with, of course, a bright idea. But it requires evaluation of that concept to determine its marketability, its potential for internal buy-in, and its technical feasibility before planning for production.

    This course introduces you to customer-focused design, where behavioral psychology meets product analysis and service usage. Learn how to brainstorm and choose a concept, write a mission statement, identify internal stakeholders, analyze the customer experience, and define functional requirements for your product or service. Engineers and technical specialists will learn how to determine if a product or service is worth developing, and if so, how best to apply talent and resources to its development.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Developing the Concept.
    • Select and Sketch the Concept.
    • Identify and Communicate to Stakeholders.
    • Define the Context.
    • Defining the Functional Requirements.
    • Collect and Prioritize Use Cases.
    • Derive Requirements from Use Case Behaviors.
    • Summarize and Finalize Requirements.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Discuss the benefits of using the Getting Design Right Process.
    • Recommend when and how your organization can use this process.
    • Use this process to define a design problem.
    
    
• Targeting Product and Service Designs to Customers' Needs

  • Did you know that you can determine a product or service’s potential for commercial success before going to market? By properly identifying marketplace demand and setting up a rigorous evaluation and design process, you can develop a product or service that best serves your customers’ needs and desires and stands the greatest chance for commercial success.

    You’ll learn to identify and measure customer demand; benchmark the competition to gain market advantage; rank and weigh product objectives; and define technical requirements for production based on the potential market. This course introduces field-tested, repeatable methods for designing a commercially viable product or service that positions your company ahead of the competition.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Identify Customer Needs.
    • Where We Are in the Process.
    • Conduct a Contextual Inquiry.
    • Summarize Product or Service Objectives.
    • Measure the Needs.
    • Use the Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) Method.
    • Rank and Weight Product Objectives.
    • Benchmark the Competition.
    • Determine Technical Requirements and the Customer Value Proposition.
    • Use the House of Quality Technique.
    • Identify the Customer Value Proposition.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Conduct a contextual inquiry to identify customer needs.
    • Quantify how well product or service requirements meet customer needs.
    • Use a step-by-step process to translate customer needs into technical requirements.
    • Generate a Customer Value Proposition (CVP).
    
    
• Exploring the Design Space and Optimizing the Design

  • Turn that brilliant concept and into a viable, market-ready solution by examining your design concept from multiple perspectives. Learn to review the requirements and components of your concept in greater detail. By optimizing the design space and streamlining the design process, you can increase efficiency and actually create more value for your customers.

    This course will teach you how to take a raw concept and create a polished design. Avoid the pitfalls of hurrying the process or neglecting to examine your concept from all angles. Learn how to research competitor products in depth; collaborate with customer experts; and perform patent searches—all of which help to move your design one step closer to market.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Explore the Design Space.
    • Where we are in the Process.
    • Reasons to explore.
    • Discover and Organize Concepts.
    • Clarify the Problem and Decompose Functions.
    • Brainstorm and Research.
    • Organize, Prune, and Expand Concept Fragments.
    • Combine Concepts to Create Solutions.
    • Generate Integrated Concepts.
    • List Subsystems.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Explain the reasons for exploring a broad design space.
    • Generate integrated design solutions from initial concepts.
    • Avoid design flaws.
    • Use a trade study (tradeoff analysis) technique to optimize design choices.
    
    
• Thinking Through the Structure of System Design

  • Carrying a concept to completion is no simple task. Design and development teams need precise information about function, requirements, interfaces, and project components. A concept cannot be put into production until the system architecture has been reviewed for integrity and technical variables have been taken into account.

    Clear communication among design stakeholders can be especially challenging. Learn how to establish a common language and remove ambiguity from the process to ensure a smooth hand-off from the concept design group to the development team.

    Because an array of stakeholders, from engineers to managers, are typically involved in this transition, seamless communication and clear understanding of the design architecture are instrumental in developing a successful product or service.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Designing System Behavior and Functional Control.
    • Get the System Architecture Right.
    • Map Behaviors and Set Targets.
    • Extract Functional Requirements.
    • Design the Functional Control.
    • Designing the Structure.
    • Analyze Subsystem Interfaces.
    • Allocate Technical Performance Targets.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Describe your product or service in a way that enables teams of people to work together on its design.
    • Apply the sequence of behavior-function-structure to the development of systems design.
    
    
• Ensuring the Success of Product and Service Design

  • Nothing about designing a product or service is entirely risk-free. In systems design, risk is always present, so it’s more a matter of identifying, quantifying, and properly managing it. To gauge a product or service’s potential for failure, first assess whether the design addresses requirements, then test and evaluate it to determine if it’s capable of reaching performance targets.

    Learn how to reduce the severity of negative outcomes and become a problem solver. Run a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) in order to quantify and manage risk and review real-life risk management scenarios. When flaws in concept or design processes are discovered, you’ll know how to deploy the FMEA to prioritize corrective measures.

    Risk will always be present. Prevent wasted development budgets, avoid future sales difficulties, product recalls, even bad press by identifying, quantifying and mitigating risk early in the development process.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Validate and Verify Requirements.
    • Where We Are in the Process.
    • Conduct Design Reviews.
    • Develop a Test Plan.
    • Manage Risks.
    • Risk and the Design Process.
    • Identify Risks.
    • Quanitify Risks.
    • Mitigate Risks.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Use design reviews and test plans to validate and verify requirements.
    • Use time-tested risk management techniques to analyze potential design failures and implement corrective actions.
    
    
• Executing and Improving System Design

  • Be more creative, productive and efficient in your development projects. Create tight parameters in your project architecture and exercise rigorous control over processes and you’ll not only enjoy better performance; you’ll prevent wasted time, resources, and inventory.

    As you move to production, your improvements to the system design will be instrumental in reducing, if not eliminating entirely, quality problems, product recalls and lawsuits.

    As the final course in the certificate program, you will emerge with a functional and customized system design plan that you can apply directly to your business.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Executing the Design.
    • The Process of Getting Design Right.
    • Schedule the Project and Track the Progress.
    • Identify Dependencies and Deliverables.
    • Create the Schedule and Conduct Reviews.
    • Iterating and Tailoring the Design Process.
    • Iterate for Success.
    • Iterate by Level.
    • Develop a Systems View.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Execute a design through scheduling and tracking.
    • Use process iteration to refine and perfect the design.
    • Tailor the Getting Design Right process for your use.
    
    

Accreditation

Introduction to Project Leadership Dealing with Difference Earned Value Management Influence Without Authority Conflict Resolution Project Teams: Mining Collective Intelligence has been approved for 6.5 PDUs.

Participants who successfully complete all 12 courses in this certificate series will receive a Certificate in Customer-Focused Product and Service Design from Cornell University’s College of Engineering, a Certificate in Project Leadership from Cornell University’s College of Engineering and a Master Certificate in Systems Design and Project Leadership from Cornell University’s College of Engineering.