There are no mandatory prerequisites for enrolling in the MIT xPRO Architecture and Systems Engineering program, but familiarity with certain concepts is assumed. Participants with the following suggested career experience may be more likely to find the program's courses most relevant:
- An undergraduate degree (for instance, a Bachelor’s degree)
- Around 1-2 years or more of work experience in a technical field (past participants in this program have had, on average, 5-15 years of work experience)
- Past experience with modeling—regardless of domain (for example, modeling for computation, physics-based simulations, testing, or other domains
No management experience is required of participants, but some class materials will require participants to write about teamwork and general management topics—as relevant to systems architecture and complex projects.
Incoming participants are expected to be familiar with the following concepts:
- Systems Engineering “V” model
- Product Development Reference Models: Stage-Gate Reviews, Waterfall, Spiral, Agile
- Requirements, including principles for developing clear and concise requirements, and flow down and management tools
- Customer needs identification methodologies, like Voice of the Customer analysis
- Spreadsheet software (such as Excel) and simple spreadsheet models
Familiarity and/or experience with the following concepts is preferred—but not required:
- Early-stage product development
- Product lifecycle, including aftermarket and maintenance
- Functional analysis
- Basic concept development methods (Morphological Matrix, QFD)
- Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE)
- Integrating or connecting models together
- Verification and validation
For more information about the Architecture and Systems Engineering program, please refer to our helpful FAQ site, especially the article How do I know if the Architecture and Systems Engineering program is right for me?