Defense Acquisition University: update on SPRDE Systems Engineering career path

Defense AT&L, July-August, 2007

On pages 53-54 of the March-April 2007 issue of Defense AT & L, the article entitled "Upcoming SPRDE-SE Certification Changes" described several changes to the DoD Systems Planning, Research, Development, and Engineering Systems Engineering career path. In the intervening time, there has been further refinement of the changes.

Effective Oct. 1, 2007, the SPRDE career field will have an additional path: SPRDE-Program Systems Engineer (SPRDE-PSE). The new SPRDE-PSE career path will be targeted at systems engineers fulfilling leadership roles on acquisition programs and will carry with it increased education and training and experience standards to meet certification requirements. The existing SPRDE-Systems Engineering (SPRDE-SE) career path remains unchanged and is intended for all other systems engineering professionals. Like SPRDE-PSE, however, SPRDE-SE will incorporate new Defense Acquisition University systems engineering courses to fulfill the education and training certification requirements at all three levels. Specific certification requirements for both tracks are detailed below.

For SPRDE-SE, Level I certification now requires, in addition to the core ACQ 101 course, completion of the new online SYS 101 course "Fundamentals of SPRDE." Level II now requires, along with ACQ 201 (A & B), the completion of the new online continuous learning module CLE 003 "Technical Reviews"; completion of the new online SYS 202 course "Intermediate SPRDE, Part I"; and completion of the new classroom SYS 203 course "Intermediate SPRDE, Part II." Level III now requires the online module CLL 008, "Designing for Supportability in DoD Systems," and the new classroom SYS 302 course, "Technical Leadership in Systems Engineering." The experience requirements for the three levels remain one, two, and four years, respectively.

The new SPRDE-PSE career path will require the same courses as SPRDE-SE at each level but will have additional certification training requirements. Level I will require the completion of two additional Level 100 courses, which can be taken from a variety of disciplines. Level II will require the completion of LOG 204 "Configuration Management," as well as one additional 100 or 200 level course. Level III will require two additional 200 or 300 level courses. The new SPRDE-PSE career path certifications will also require more years of experience: Level I--two years; Level II--four years; and Level III--eight years.

The new certification requirements for SPRDE-PSE will not be effective until Oct. 1, 2007, even though the new SYS courses referenced above are now being offered in place of the previous SYS courses. These changes and additional details will be officially announced and maintained in the online Defense Acquisition University catalog at: <www.dau.mil/catalog/default.aspx>, no later than the Oct. 1 implementation date.