A dynamic partnership between Mesa Community College and IBM has created three convenient online classes for both seasoned professionals and students who seek to expand their knowledge of Software Quality Assurance and increase job marketability.

James Cox, a lead engineer for The Boeing Company, took all three classes to improve his quality assurance expertise and increase his ability to communicate with other software engineers.

“The classes rounded out and expanded my knowledge of software quality assurance,” Cox said. “The information covered all the details I need to do my job and work in a virtual collaborative environment with a diverse group of software engineers. It’s really important to be able to talk the same language.”

Cox said the online classes were extremely convenient as his job required him to travel around the country.

“I was able to take classes from wherever I was—from Washington D.C. to Huntington Beach,” Cox said. “You can’t beat that kind of convenience.”

MCC’s Business and Industry Institute offers the following three online courses in an 8-week format, with the first course offered in August of the 2008 fall semester:

• Software Quality: Introduces the methods used to achieve bug free software during implementation. Begins 8/25/08.
• Engineering Quality in Software Development: Covers advanced concepts in designing software to avoid problems later. Begins 10/20/08.
• Software Testing for Quality Assurance: Completes the software life cycle by showing how to verify that the software is stable and meets requirements. Begins 10/20.

The prerequisites are a working knowledge of any object-oriented programming language or permission of the instructor.

These courses are part of the Arizona Information Technology Skills Training Initiative (AITSTI) sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor and implemented by the Arizona Department of Commerce. The Arizona Information Technology Skills Training Initiative (AITSTI) was funded by a grant awarded under the President's High Growth Job Training Initiative, as implemented by the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL's) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) in conjunction with the Arizona Department of Commerce.  This is an equal opportunity employer/program. Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals.

For more information visit http://aitsti.bii.maricopa.edu/homepage/
or e-mail Dr. Oris Friesen at: oris.friesen@mcmail.maricopa.edu.