* Teaches students to design programs so that they are easy to read, debug, modify, and maintain. * Provides students with the ability to write well designed elementary, intermediate, and advanced structured COBOL programs in their entirety. * Familiarizes students with information processing and systems concepts that will help them interact with users and systems analysts when designing programs. * Familiarize students with programming tools such as pseudocode and hierarchy charts that make program logic more structured, modular, and top-down. * Teaches students useful techniques for maintaining and modifying older "legacy" programs. * Student disk containing all data for all programming assignments as well as the full Practice Program from each chapter. * A fully integrated explanation of the Year 2000 (Y2K) problem and its remedies. * Pedagogy--Debugging tips and critical thinking questions in each chapter.

Each chapter also includes Internet assignments to familiarize students with sites that can be used to enhance their COBOL skills.