Challenge

Having been successful in his career and with vast knowledge of the processes and tools used to manage software projects, Boris began mentoring peers and others with technical backgrounds as a way of giving back to the community. He states, “At that time, the easiest way I found to teach was by using the process defined in Quality Center – just four components: the requirements, test plan, test lab, and defects. Those four components were enough to help people understand the entire application lifecycle management process.” As people mentored by Boris got jobs in the industry, they began sending more people to him for mentoring. Soon, Boris realized he was ready to change careers and become a fulltime mentor and teacher.

Boris reached out to his long-time friend, who also happened to be a teacher, about the idea of opening a school. Sergei Olikhovski, Poludo Institute of Technology’s co-founder and COO, along with Boris, founded and opened the school within two months in 2015.

With the recent arrival of many technology companies, including Microsoft and Amazon, the high-tech industry is booming in British Columbia. This technology boom also has created a huge demand for resources to support the industry. Poludo found itself challenged by the industry to provide resources skilled in software development technologies, and challenged by its students to provide primary education for those entering the field while also offering continuing education to those already working there.

Solution

Poludo utilized the Application Delivery Management (ADM) Academic Program that grants educational institutions around the world free access to ADM software products for a one year term. With this resource, Poludo created a program allowing students to earn a Software Quality Assurance Analyst certificate, which is awarded upon successful completion of advanced concepts and methodologies of software assurance quality control and testing.

“When we teach our students, we primarily use Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) to illustrate the process of the methodology. We actually present other tools too, so students have the opportunity to compare them. For example, we present the Atlassian products, JIRA, and Confluence. We want our students to learn what tools are capable of, as opposed to JIRA. I have used both quite extensively in all the projects I’ve completed here in British Columbia, and I can tell you one thing – I am a huge advocate of ALM!”

Results

“A great measure of success is the placement of our students,” Poludo notes. “Our graduates are placed with great companies spanning multiple industries including telecommunications, retail, transportation, healthcare, insurance, and higher education. I actually think the reason for these successes is the tools we use to demonstrate application lifecycle management processing, and those tools are ALM and Quality Center.”

The ADM Academic Program offers access to industry-leading application delivery solutions focusing on its offerings in the application lifecycle management and functional testing areas. These products are offered free of charge to qualifying educational institutions around the world for use in classroom teachings. Students can learn valuable skills to gain a competitive advantage in the job market, and put QA and testing concepts into practice. They will learn how to plan, build, and accelerate the delivery of high quality applications in an agile way with solutions designed for the modern world.

Educational institutions around the world will gain access to ADM software products for a one-year term at no cost for use in their classroom teachings.