IBM
IBM Systems and Solutions Architect Professional Certificate
IBM

IBM Systems and Solutions Architect Professional Certificate

Launch Your Systems and Solutions Architect Career. Build job-ready expertise in IT architecture, modeling tools, systems design, and AI

Jeff Crume
John Rofrano
IBM Skills Network Team

Instructors: Jeff Crume

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5.0

(15 reviews)

Beginner level

Recommended experience

3 months to complete
at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace
Earn a career credential that demonstrates your expertise
5.0

(15 reviews)

Beginner level

Recommended experience

3 months to complete
at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

  • Analyze, design, and develop scalable enterprise systems architectures with modeling tools, GenAI, and agile methodologies

  • Define and implement effective integration strategies and deployment blueprints, using generative AI to enhance architectural decision-making

  • Apply microservices, DevOps, Docker, Kubernetes, and design patterns to build resilient, automated system environments

  • Implement cybersecurity frameworks, compliance practices, and SDLC processes to secure enterprise systems, assess risks, and plan disaster recovery

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Taught in English
Recently updated!

December 2025

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Professional Certificate - 11 course series

What you'll learn

  • Explore the exciting world of systems architecture and learn the fundamentals to design scalable, reliable system solutions

  • Explain systems and solutions architects roles, skills, career paths, certifications, & how they use systems thinking and SDLC to meet business needs

  • Gain hands-on experience by applying systems design fundamentals and tools to design IT systems and solutions

  • Utilize requirement-gathering, prototyping, and modeling tools to analyze business needs and develop documented solutions for real-world applications

Skills you'll gain

Category: Systems Architecture
Category: Systems Analysis
Category: Systems Thinking
Category: Systems Development Life Cycle
Category: Software Architecture
Category: Application Design
Category: Software Design Patterns
Category: Data Flow Diagrams (DFDs)
Category: Stakeholder Communications

What you'll learn

  • Create data flow diagrams, entity-relationship diagrams, and unified modeling language diagrams to visualize data, system architecture, and workflows

  • Evaluate existing IT systems by assessing system architecture, features, performance, and UI/UX to identify inefficiencies and propose improvements

  • Conduct cost-benefit analyses, operational feasibility studies, and risk assessments to compare IT solution alternatives and recommend solutions

  • Integrate system analysis, modeling, and evaluation techniques in a project to propose a digital transformation strategy for a business

Skills you'll gain

Category: Systems Analysis
Category: Systems Design
Category: Enterprise Resource Planning
Category: Risk Management
Category: Business Process Modeling
Category: Prototyping
Category: Business Process
Category: Systems Architecture
Category: Business Analysis
Category: Business Communication
Category: Process Flow Diagrams
Category: Agile Methodology
Category: Data Flow Diagrams (DFDs)
Category: Data Modeling
Category: Computer Science
Category: Digital Transformation
Category: Solution Design
Category: Workflow Management
Category: Product Lifecycle Management
Category: Information Technology

What you'll learn

  • Ideal for non-project management professionals to help develop key project management skills and be more successful in their business or IT roles

  • Job-ready skills in project, stakeholder, and requirements management, including key tools such as user stories, RACI charts, and Agile frameworks

  • Identify stakeholders, analyze them, and apply effective communication and stakeholder engagement strategies; Elicit, document, & manage requirements

  • Leverage generative AI tools to support project management, stakeholder engagement and requirements gathering

Skills you'll gain

Category: Stakeholder Engagement
Category: Communication Planning
Category: Business Analysis
Category: Risk Management
Category: Stakeholder Communications
Category: Prioritization
Category: Communication
Category: Kanban Principles
Category: Project Management Software
Category: Project Coordination
Category: Program Management
Category: Requirements Analysis
Category: Product Lifecycle Management
Category: Waterfall Methodology

What you'll learn

  • Build job-ready skills in business process modeling, Lean, Six Sigma, and systems thinking to excel in business analysis and process management roles

  • Develop and interpret process models and maps that represent current and desired states, enabling better communication and decision making

  • Analyze processes to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and improvement opportunities using mapping, narratives, and analytical frameworks

  • Integrate systems thinking, Lean, Six Sigma, and AI-enabled methods to design, implement, and sustain optimized processes with measurable impact

Skills you'll gain

Category: Process Analysis
Category: Generative AI
Category: Agile Methodology
Category: Process Mapping
Category: Prioritization
Category: Lean Methodologies
Category: Lean Six Sigma
Category: Dataflow
Category: Change Management
Category: Process Flow Diagrams
Category: Business Process Improvement
Category: Systems Thinking
Category: Quality Improvement
Category: Six Sigma Methodology
Category: Process Design
Category: Process Improvement
Category: Business Process Management
Category: Matrix Management
Category: Business Process Modeling
Category: Stakeholder Analysis

What you'll learn

  • Build job-ready skills in cloud native, microservices, containers, DevOps, and Agile employers are looking for in just 6 weeks.

  • Create RESTful APIs for modern web development and deploy them with Docker containers. 

  • Implement DevOps and CI/CD practices for streamlined development and deployment. 

  • Apply Agile and Scrum best practices for iterative, efficient software delivery.

Skills you'll gain

Category: Microservices
Category: Agile Methodology
Category: DevOps
Category: Cloud-Native Computing
Category: Docker (Software)
Category: Scrum (Software Development)
Category: Containerization
Category: CI/CD
Category: Restful API
Category: Continuous Integration
Category: Behavior-Driven Development
Category: Test Driven Development (TDD)
Category: Continuous Delivery
Category: Postman API Platform
Category: Hybrid Cloud Computing
Category: Agile Project Management
Category: Cloud Computing Architecture
Category: Cloud Applications
Category: Kubernetes
Category: Software Development

What you'll learn

  • Importance, benefits, and core components of Enterprise Data Architecture (EDA) and popular data architecture frameworks.

  • How to design and implement Enterprise Data Architectures for specific use cases.

  • How to develop and implement policies and procedures, such as data retention policies and operational standards.

  • How to plan and execute data system migrations and modernizations.

Skills you'll gain

Category: Data Governance
Category: Data Migration
Category: Data Architecture
Category: Data Modeling
Category: Data Management
Category: Enterprise Architecture
Category: Extract, Transform, Load
Category: Data Processing
Category: Database Architecture and Administration
Category: Data Integration
Category: Emerging Technologies
Category: Application Frameworks
Category: Data Storage
Category: Technology Strategies

What you'll learn

  • Build valuable applied data storage, integration, and migration skills employers need. 

  • Gain hands-on experience using industry-specific data tools.

  • Demonstrate you understand data-related best practices and can apply methodologies through industry-standard processes. 

  • Showcase your ability to solve problems related to data processes that you can talk about in interviews.

Skills you'll gain

Category: Data Integration
Category: Cloud Storage
Category: Data Migration
Category: Data Storage
Category: Extract, Transform, Load
Category: Data Security
Category: Data Management
Category: Data Infrastructure
Category: Data Pipelines
Category: Data Transformation
Category: Disaster Recovery
Category: Data Architecture

What you'll learn

  • Create test plans and traceability matrices linking business needs to outcomes, and coordinate testing among QA teams, developers, and stakeholders

  • Build deployment checklists with clear launch steps, go/no-go criteria, rollback plans, and data validation techniques

  • Define key system metrics to support post-launch tracking, organize response plans, and guide improvement through retrospectives

  • Create a Testing and Release Kit with test strategy, validation checklist, and support plans for post-launch success

Skills you'll gain

Category: Software Testing
Category: Release Management
Category: Behavior-Driven Development
Category: Application Deployment
Category: CI/CD
Category: Test Driven Development (TDD)
Category: Software Development Life Cycle
Category: Data Modeling
Category: Performance Testing
Category: Software Quality Assurance
Category: Test Planning
Category: Product Lifecycle Management
Category: Process Flow Diagrams
Category: Digital Transformation
Category: Maintainability
Category: Business Process Automation
Category: Risk Management
Category: Data Validation
Category: Systems Analysis
Category: Systems Thinking
Cybersecurity Architecture

Cybersecurity Architecture

Course 912 hours

What you'll learn

  • Describe the five foundational principles of cybersecurity and the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) triad

  • Summarize the different areas that a cybersecurity architect must adopt to develop a secure enterprise solution

  • Discuss the different security domains, including IAM, endpoint security, network security, application security, and data security

  • Demonstrate your proficiency in recommending methods to improve network security in a given scenario

Skills you'll gain

Category: Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
Category: Data Security
Category: Application Security
Category: Endpoint Security
Category: Secure Coding
Category: Firewall
Category: Virtual Private Networks (VPN)
Category: Cyber Attacks
Category: Network Security
Category: Identity and Access Management
Category: Authentications
Category: Infrastructure Security
Category: Authorization (Computing)
Category: Security Testing
Category: Security Controls
Category: Cyber Security Strategy
Category: Cybersecurity
Category: Threat Detection
Category: Data Governance

What you'll learn

  • Apply prompt engineering and generative AI tools to gather business requirements, produce documentation, and create systems architecture diagrams

  • Create structured systems analysis, solutions architectures, optimized processes, interactive dashboards, and improved stakeholder communications

  • Generate and improve workflows by producing Business Process Model and Notation diagrams, process flowcharts, and journey maps using generative AI

  • Integrate gen AI with business analysis platforms, such as Jira, Confluence, Miro, and Power BI, to improve deliverable quality and efficiency

Skills you'll gain

Category: Generative AI
Category: Systems Analysis
Category: Systems Architecture
Category: Business Process Modeling
Category: Systems Thinking
Category: Software Architecture
Category: Business Communication
Category: ChatGPT
Category: Business Process Automation
Category: Stakeholder Communications
Category: Business Analysis
Category: Consulting
Category: Technical Consulting
Category: AI Workflows
Category: Stakeholder Analysis
Category: Solution Architecture

What you'll learn

  • Design an enterprise architecture that replaces a legacy system and supports digital services, real-time data integration, and automated processes

  • Create solution blueprints, system and data models, cloud-native deployment strategies, and security frameworks that align with regulatory standards

  • Develop process flow, CI/CD pipelines, and a phased implementation roadmap

  • Apply cloud-native platforms, APIs, and microservices principles to modernize core enterprise operations and agile delivery

Skills you'll gain

Category: Application Programming Interface (API)
Category: Database Design
Category: Architectural Design
Category: Database Management
Category: Data Modeling
Category: Data Governance
Category: Enterprise Architecture
Category: Cloud Infrastructure
Category: SQL
Category: Cloud Computing
Category: Software Systems
Category: Microservices
Category: Unified Modeling Language
Category: Cloud Applications
Category: Requirements Analysis
Category: Software Development Life Cycle
Category: CI/CD
Category: Stakeholder Engagement
Category: Cloud-Native Computing
Category: Docker (Software)

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Instructors

IBM Skills Network Team
85 Courses1,684,795 learners
Muhammad Yahya
IBM
5 Courses97,318 learners
Daniel C. Yeomans
SkillUp
31 Courses164,806 learners

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IBM
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