8/25/09
Certification Specials Offered for Employed and Unemployed Professionals
More and more software development professionals are using these uncertain economic times as an opportunity to “tune up” their resumes and make them more marketable should they lose their jobs. Those who have lost their jobs already are looking for a way to differentiate themselves amid intense competition from the other highly qualified candidates.
Fortunately, the IEEE Computer Society has put together some very timely specials to help both the employed and unemployed. The Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) for entry-level professionals or Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) for mid-level professionals credentials can provide an important means of demonstrating value to present and future employers. Special promotions include:
- CSDP Beta Examination (expires 16 October 2009)
This $295 package is for the CSDP Beta examination bundle which includes the e-learning, examination, the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge, and the supplemental materials.
- Unemployed Discount
If you are unemployed and would like to earn the CSDA or CSDP credential to help increase your chances of getting hired, the Computer Society is offering the CSDA or CSDP bundle of e-learning and exam at the discount price of $450.
- CSDP GI Bill Provision
The Computer Society has worked closely with the US Department of Veterans Affairs to have the CSDP included in the GI Bill for reimbursement. Upon successful completion of the CSDP examination, the GI Bill will reimburse up to $400 in costs.
For more information on these options, visit here or email the Certification Department at certification@computer.org
In addition, many employment and career resource centers at both the state and local level are now able to help those in need. Dan Bocko, an IEEE Computer Society member, was recently laid off as a senior software test engineer.
Dan was aware of the CSDP credential but was not able to pursue it while employed due to time constraints. As soon as he lost his job, he knew that he wanted to add the CSDP credential to his resume.
“While searching the job opportunities, I noticed that more and more employers are valuing certifications and that was a clue to me that I needed to get something on my resume. I selected the CSDP as it is the broadest software certification out there and covers the elements of the software development lifecycle better than any other software certification,” he said.
Dan worked through his former employer and was referred to his local employment center in
CSDP Exam Refresh Effort In Full Swing
The IEEE Computer Society is moving forward with the refresh of the CSDP examination, which will bring the CSDP in alignment with the 2010 refresh of the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) Guide and also in line with current software engineering industry trends. Additionally, the changes will maintain the CSDP’s standing with ISO-IEC standards for software engineering certifications.
Additions to the CSDP exam include four knowledge areas that will be present in the 2010 version of the SWEBOK Guide: software engineering economics, computing foundations, math foundations, and engineering foundations. The exam will also be brought up to current industry standards through greater recognition of Agile development methods. As a further benefit, the CSDP, CSDA, SWEBOK Guide and SE 2004 Curriculum will all be in full alignment in 2010. Click here (link to new website page) to see the public specification for the new CSDP examination.
More than three dozen CSDP credential holders are participating in the nine-month effort to develop and test the new CSDP examination, which is expected to debut in March of 2010. These volunteers are from both academia and industry and represent regions throughout the world.
“Keeping the CSDP credential current is important to both employers and employees. The challenge for employers is distinguishing top talent; the CSDP gives them a valuable too to do this. For employees and job candidates, having the CSDP credential helps them to stand out among the competition” said Eddie Burris, a CSDP credential holder and volunteer.
The CSDP exam refresh process began with an extensive job requirements analysis that led to the framework for the new examination. In May 2009, items from the existing CSDP examination were reviewed to see how many of these would be relevant for the new examination. In June, 390 new items were written and reviewed. From all of these items, a new exam will be created and beta tested in late Q4’09. Once beta testing is complete, the exam will be packaged and put in production in late Q1’10.
“The CSDP helps to standardize the important issues for software development professionals and it reinforces the message that software professionals should have a broad understanding of the software engineering knowledge areas as a whole” said Oscar Mondragon, a CSDP and volunteer from
The CSDP exam refresh effort is being led by Steve Tockey, Chair of the Certification Committee of the IEEE Computer Society Processional Activities Board (PAB) and Chris Ruoff, Senior Manager for Career Development for the IEEE CS. Tockey is an industry veteran with 32 years of experience in software development and training. “I've been on more than one software project that delivered complex software with fewer defects than some of the best commercial software products and was finished early and under budget. It's not a fluke, it's simply applying the kinds of skills and knowledge embodied in the CSDP and SWEBOK Guide, My goal is to raise the level of professionalism in our industry, and refreshing our exams is part of that effort.”
Computer Society ED Makes Presentation at NASSCOM
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., 30 July, 2009 – Software engineering needs to be developed into a bona-fide engineering profession, and certifications are an important means of achieving this, IEEE Computer Society Executive Director Angela Burgess told attendees at a session of the NASSCOM HR Summit.
Burgess’ presentation during the 28-29 July meeting at Le Royal Meridian in Chennai, India, drew about 450 CEOs, senior human relations professionals, and training, industry, and academic executives. NASSCOM, the trade body and chamber of commerce of the IT-BPO industries, serves about 1,200 members from Indian companies and multinationals operating in India.
Burgess noted that membership organizations like the IEEE Computer Society serve both academia and industry, helping create educational curricula as well as interoperable standards. “And so if a disconnect exists between what academia delivers and what industry needs, then we ought to step up and take some responsibility for that and try to address the problem,” she said.
Industry is currently struggling to fill the educational gap in helping fresh software engineering graduates attain professional status. Process improvement methodologies like the Capability Maturity Model help, however don’t necessarily foster professionalism, spell out clear career paths, or enable organizations to evaluate new hires, Burgess said. Consequently, career paths develop on an ad-hoc basis and what it means to be a software architect varies from organization to organization.
Since computer engineering is at least a century younger than electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering, Burgess said it’s not surprising that the five computing disciplines—computer science, information systems, software engineering, computer engineering, and information technology—all still have a skills focus.
“The problem happens if we stop here, and we don’t all enable further progression,” she said. “We are concerned that if programmers don’t know the context of the profession they are entering, they will be set up for an unhappy and unnecessarily short career spent chasing the latest skill but not really learning how to progress in their life and their work.”
Burgess said this approach won’t foster development of the huge numbers of creative, innovative, synergistic, systems thinkers the world will need in the future. Developing a new approach can’t be achieved with just new teaching techniques or exhortations to innovate. Rather, a new approach rests on software engineering becoming a bona-fide engineering profession. “We strongly believe software is being deployed into too many mission-critical and safety-critical, and societal-critical applications to treat it any other way,” she said.
The IEEE Computer Society’s Software Engineering Body of Knowledge, which the ISO/IEC ratified last fall as the reference for all software engineering certifications, provides an important foundational step in achieving this goal. The Computer Society’s Certified Software Development Associate and Certified Software Development Professional credentials also provide entry- and mid-level software developers with a concrete means of measuring their knowledge. Burgess said the next step will be creating similar efforts in the IT profession.
“The benefit to you is that you will now be able to rely on an international professional standard when you hire around the globe,” she told the NASSCOM members in attendance. “The benefit to humanity is that the highly skilled software engineering workforce we need will be there when we need it.”
For more information on the Society’s certifications, go to http://www2.computer.org/getcertified.
About the IEEE Computer Society
With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world’s leading organization of computing professionals. Founded in 1946, and the largest of the 39 societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Computer Society is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology. The Society serves the information and career-development needs of today’s computing researchers and practitioners with technical journals, magazines, conferences, books, conference publications, certifications, and online courses.
Computer Society Partner Holds Indian IT Jobs Seminar
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., 28 July, 2009 – Global Talent Track (GTT), the IEEE Computer Society’s Registered Education Partner for certifications, recently held five seminars over a three-day period for recent IT graduates in India.
“Where Are the IT Jobs?” co-sponsored by the Indian newspaper Sakal, was held 23-25 July in Pune, India, where GTT is headquartered. The event was intended to provide recent grads with information on IT job opportunities in the current recession.
According to Sakal, 130,000 of the 230,000 employees that India’s IT industry absorbed last year were fresh graduates. However, the industry is expected to absorb only 50,000 new graduates in 2009-2010. Because of that, fresh IT graduates need highly polished skills and competencies to find a place in the competitive IT industry, said Dr. Uma Ganesh, GTT’s founder and CEO.
Indian companies now value quality over quantity, and graduates in India and elsewhere will find much fiercer competition for jobs. Dr. Ganesh said being able to develop software is not enough. These days, developing a thorough understanding of the entire software development cycle, including processes, is necessary to build the large-scale systems in use today.
The Computer Society’s Certified Software Development Associate for entry-level developers and its Certified Software Development Professional credential for mid-level professionals are tools that graduates can use to attain this knowledge. GTT provides employability skills development, including Computer Society certifications, to undergraduates seeking technology positions.
Angela Burgess, executive director of the IEEE Computer Society; Dr. Anand Bhalerao, dean of the Faculty of Engineering and principal of Bharati Vidyapeeth University College of Engineering; and Deepak Shikarpur, chairman of the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries, and Agriculture’s IT subcommittee; delivered presentations during the seminars.
GTT screens new graduates to measure their technical and soft skills and interests. Those who obtain a CSDA certification are offered internships at IT firms. The CSDA and the CSDP are the first two certifications that conform to the newly released ISO/IEC 24773 standard, which stipulates methods of certifying software engineering professionals worldwide. The basis of both certifications is the Computer Society’s Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK). For more information on the Computer Society’s certifications, go to http://www.computer.org/getcertified.
About the IEEE Computer Society
With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world’s leading organization of computing professionals. Founded in 1946, and the largest of the 39 societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Computer Society is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology. The Society serves the information and career-development needs of today’s computing researchers and practitioners with technical journals, magazines, conferences, books, conference publications, certifications, and online courses.
Global Talent Track to prepare software engineers for jobs
PUNE: Global Talent Track (GTT) of India has announced that it is adopting the IEEE Computer Society's Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) certification to enable the Indian software engineering workforce to prepare for jobs in the software engineering community.
GTT, headquartered in Pune, specialises in providing employability skills to undergraduates who are seeking employment in the technology industry. Under the agreement with the IEEE Computer Society, GTT will adopt and actively market the CSDA to undergraduate computer science and software engineering students.
“We have agreements with leading universities in India to bridge the gap between the academic curriculum and the requirements of the industry and train their students to become successful IT professionals,” Uma Ganesh, CEO of GTT, said in a release.
The curriculum has been mapped according to the guidelines of CSDA. It is designed for entry-level software developers, was introduced in May 2008 and rolled out worldwide in September.
It is intended to provide undergraduate computer science and software engineering students their first credential toward a solid career foundation as a software development practitioner.
The Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) certification is intended for mid-career software development practitioners. GTT intends to train 200 certified professionals in the first year and 500 the following.
The CSDA and the CSDP are the first two certifications that conform to the newly-released ISO/IEC 24773 standard, which stipulates methods of certifying software engineering professionals worldwide. The basis of both certifications is the Computer Society's Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK).
“Over 1,000 software development practitioners have advanced their career opportunities through CSDA and CSDP certification. India being one of the leading countries contributing in space of software professionals the certification combined with GTT’s proven training platform would help the students acquire the right skill sets to join the global workforce,” said Kasturi Rangachar, President, IEEE Computer Society 2008.
The announcement was made at a seminar titled, “Where are the IT Jobs”, which had the participation of industry honchos like Global CEO, Zensar Technologies, Chairman of the National IT ITES and eCommerce Committee of the CII Ganesh Natarajan Head, Software Eng Labs, TATA Consultancy Services, Arun Bahulkar.
“We have agreements with leading universities in India to bridge the gap between the academic curriculum and the requirements of the industry and train their students to become successful IT professionals,” said, Uma Ganesh, CEO of GTT
With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world’s leading organization of computing professionals. Founded in 1946, and the largest of the 39 societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Computer Society is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology. The Society serves the information and career-development needs of today’s computing researchers and practitioners with technical journals, magazines, conferences, books, conference publications, and online courses.
- Four on-line modules that comprise the 15 Knowledge Areas contained in the CSDA
- Six on-line assessments: a pre-test, four module tests, and a post test of 180 questions. The post test is structured like the CSDA examination in terms of questions per knowledge area.
- Six months worth of access; allowing the user to learn at their own pace
About the IEEE Computer Society
With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world’s leading organization of computing professionals. Founded in 1946, and the largest of the 39 societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Computer Society is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology. The Society serves the information and career-development needs of today’s computing researchers and practitioners with technical journals, magazines, conferences, books, conference publications, and online courses.