Systems and Solutions Architect Capstone Project

IBM via Coursera

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Details

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Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Paid Course
Languages

English
Certificate

Paid Certificate Available
Duration & workload

17 hours 29 minutes
Sessions

On-Demand
Subtitles

English

Found in

Part of

IBM Systems and Solutions Architect

Overview

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Demonstrate your job-ready skills to employers in this portfolio-worthy capstone project! During this course, you’ll apply your systems and solutions architecture, stakeholder management, and cloud-native deployment skills to create a real-world enterprise architecture. As you work through the modules, you’ll apply systems and solutions architect strategies, including stakeholder engagement, requirements gathering, system design, security architecture, cloud deployment, and compliance alignment. Through hands-on labs, you’ll create project charters, UML, and ERD diagrams. You’ll design scalable cloud-native architectures with Docker and IBM Cloud/AWS, and combine enterprise data pipelines, and incorporate secure frameworks. Plus, you’ll build end-to-end process flow, CI/CD pipelines, and a phase implementation roadmap. By the end, you’ll have a comprehensive capstone project that demonstrates your expertise in systems and solutions architecture, highlighting your ability to address real organizational challenges and improve enterprise infrastructure. Enroll today to gain demonstrable experience completing a capstone project that provides valuable practical experience you can discuss in interviews!

Syllabus

Project Initiation and Requirements Gathering

In this module, you’ll get oriented with the capstone project’s structure, tools, and expectations. You’ll explore how the project mirrors a real-world systems architecture workflow, leading the early planning phases by creating foundational documents. You’ll review a project charter, stakeholder mapping, and engagement strategy to align business, compliance, and technical teams. You will identify key stakeholder groups across departments and define architectural goals in alignment with business objectives and regulatory mandates. Further, you’ll collect and validate both functional and non-functional enterprise-level requirements, capturing critical factors. This foundation for scalable architectural design ensures that you are prepared to navigate current and future state processes using tools such as business requirements documents (BRDs), software requirements specifications (SRSs), and requirements traceability matrices (RTMs).

Project Planning and Process Modeling

This module focuses on architectural planning and modeling the core processes of the enterprise ecosystem. You’ll demonstrate how to translate high-level business and regulatory requirements into structured, actionable architectural components using industry-standard tools and techniques. You’ll explore how to build foundational project planning artifacts, including a traceability matrix and a risk register, that consider real-world enterprise risks. You’ll learn to conduct a SWOT analysis, design and document enterprise workflows using UML diagrams, process flowcharts, and architecture blueprints. You’ll explore visual artifacts to communicate the end-to-end flow of data and logic across systems.

Enterprise Architecture and Cloud Setup

In this module, you will design and implement the foundation of cloud and enterprise architecture. You’ll focus on deploying scalable, secure infrastructure components that enable agility, compliance, and high performance in the enterprise. You’ll leverage tools, such as Docker and cloud platforms, including IBM Cloud and AWS, to design a microservices-based deployment model. You’ll learn to configure secure container registries, deploy images, and architect cloud environments. Further, you will create a data infrastructure blueprint, audit trails, and regulatory reporting. You’ll architect an event-driven architecture that supports real-time alerts to mitigate potential risks. Finally, you’ll estimate computing, storage, and bandwidth needs, aligning resource planning and document hardware, software, and network components across environments to create a complete infrastructure view.

System and Database Design

This module focuses on designing the core systems architecture, data models, defining the structure, and behavior of key system components to business requirements and regulatory standards. You’ll explore architecture diagrams and UML models to define the roles, interactions, and data flows between core enterprise services. You’ll also identify and recommend appropriate tools, frameworks, and platforms for each architectural layer. In addition, you’ll gain hands-on experience validating solution feasibility through small-scale prototypes and proofs of concept. Finally, you’ll design conceptual and logical entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs), apply normalization up to 3NF, and translate models into SQL DDL scripts.

System Testing and Deployment Strategies

In this module, you will focus on validating the systems architecture through testing strategies and deployment planning. You’ll review test plans for completeness, consistency, and alignment with architectural requirements. You’ll explore tools, such as requirements traceability matrix (RTM), test-driven development (TDD), and behavior-driven development (BDD), to verify business logic, system interactions, and user experience flows. You’ll also create configuration and API documentation to support consistent deployments and seamless integrations. Additionally, you’ll design backup and disaster recovery strategies to protect critical systems and ensure business continuity. Finally, you’ll develop CI/CD pipelines, monitoring frameworks, and incident response plans to maintain system reliability and performance.

Final Submission and Evaluation

In this module, you will complete your systems architect design, from engaging stakeholders to deploying strategies and ensuring compliance alignment. You’ll apply what you learned to create a system blueprint, UML diagrams, ERDs, data flow charts, cloud topology, CI/CD pipelines, and monitoring frameworks. You’ll prepare a document for submission, ensuring that your design vision is clearly communicated and implementation-ready. This submission will serve as a capstone evaluation and a portfolio-ready artifact that you can showcase to potential employers.

[Bonus] Career Guidance and Next Steps

In this final module, you will shift focus from project execution to career advancement. You’ll reflect on your project experience, refine your professional brand, and prepare to pursue roles in systems architecture. You’ll draft a resume and a cover letter showcasing your skills and regulatory understanding. You’ll explore various career paths in enterprise architecture and practice common but practical interview questions.