Arizona State University Adopts iRise for Advanced Requirements Engineering Curriculum & Entrepreneurship

Business Wire, Sept 30, 2008

Software Visualization Skills Considered Vital for Graduating Business Leaders

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- iRise[R] today announced that Arizona State University at the Polytechnic Campus' (ASU Poly) Division of Computing Studies is now making software visualization a significant part of the Software Enterprise requirements engineering curriculum. Students are now using iRise on a broad range of real-world projects designed to teach fundamental requirements elicitation and simulation skills that will be vital as they progress from the academic world into the working world. Some of these projects are helping to visualize early stage business ideas that may one day turn into real companies through the entrepreneurship program at ASU Poly.

ASU Poly has configured iRise authoring stations for both undergraduate and graduate use; all connected to the iRise Definition Center to facilitate project collaboration both within the University and with outside partners. Although participants in the program are geographically dispersed, they can all work together in real time using the iRise Definition Center - a secure, shared server resource that makes it easy to work on the same simulations at the same time and collaborate on class and entrepreneurial projects.

"The ability to simulate and visualize software with the latest technology has become an essential skill for our students that soon will be entering the workforce," stated Kevin Gary, assistant professor, Division of Computing Studies, Arizona State University. "Future business leaders with a deep background in software visualization are fundamentally more marketable to companies that need to quickly innovate."

Dr. Gary is working with corporate project sponsors as part of an entrepreneurship grant to help incubate start-up companies that are born from ideas realized by students in the Division of Computing Studies. Students in the Software Enterprise, a nationally acclaimed iterative approach to software engineering education, secure sign-off on these projects by first creating simulations of the proposed business solutions using iRise.

"The ASU Poly program is breaking new ground," stated Maurice Martin, COO, president and co-founder of iRise. "The charter of the iRise On Campus initiative is to make visualization accessible to innovative programs like the one at ASU Poly. Just as designers in other industries have moved away from drafting boards to visualization tools, software designers are now doing the same and this skill set is quickly becoming essential to compete in today's workforce."

Software Visualization

iRise offers a powerful way for businesses to quickly visualize and "test market" applications before a single line of code is written. For the first time, business software definition professionals can validate what they need, and then communicate their ideas to others using visualizations that replicate the exact look, feel and behavior of the proposed solution, taking the guesswork out of application definition. Just as computer-aided design (CAD) tools transformed the automotive, aerospace and semiconductor industries iRise is now transforming the global business application market.

With thousands of projects completed successfully, the value of visualization has proven to be enormous for businesses in highly competitive markets:

* Get to market twice as fast;

* Eliminate 30% of project costs;

* Ensure success of global sourcing strategies; and,

* Improve customer experience.

iRise can be used to visualize any software that has a user interface: new Web applications, portals, enhancements to existing systems, customizations to packaged implementations and even mobile applications.

Pricing and Availability

Pricing starts at $6,995 for iRise Professional Edition, a standalone version of the popular team-based iRise Enterprise Edition. Mid-market pricing is also available for smaller companies. iRise Professional Edition is available for free 30 day trial by clicking here: http://www.irise.com/.> Qualified higher education institutions may gain access to iRise products through the iRise On Campus program. Send an email to info@irise.com for more information.

To speed adoption, free iRise eLearning is available from the iRise Website. For more information, click on: http://www.irise.com/services/training_elearning.php.> About iRise

iRise is the world's leading provider of visualization software for business applications. Visualization is quickly becoming a critical competitive advantage for businesses to more effectively communicate their needs to technology teams and give everyone involved the ability to fully experience applications before they are built. Companies of all sizes like UPS, Wachovia, Manpower, CompuCredit, and many others use iRise to "test drive" their applications before building, which accelerates time to revenue, improves customer experience, and drives costs down. At iRise, our vision is that by 2020, all business software will be visualized before being built, the same way that every car, airplane, and building is visualized today. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., iRise is backed by Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, and Deutsche Bank, and has sales offices across North America.