- SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. As the name indicates, it is not a full control system, but rather focuses on the supervisory level. As such, it is a purely software package that is positioned on top of hardware to which it is interfaced, in general via Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), or other commercial hardware modules. This extensive course covers the essentials of SCADA and PLC systems, which are often used in close association with each other. A selection of case studies are used to illustrate the key concepts with examples of real world working SCADA and PLC systems in the water, electrical and processing industries