I started in this business as a programmer. I like programming. But I find the problems of software quality analysis and improvement more interesting than those of software production. For me, there's something very compelling about the question "How do I know my work is good?" Indeed, how do I know anything is good? What does good mean? That's why I got into SQA, in 1987.
Today, I work with project teams and individual engineers to help them plan SQA, change control, and testing processes that allow them to understand and control the risks of product failure. I also assist in product risk analysis, test design, and in the design and implementation of computer-supported testing. Most of my experience is with market-driven Silicon Valley software companies like Apple Computer and Borland, so the techniques I've gathered and developed are designed for use under conditions of compressed schedules, high rates of change, component-based technology and poor specification.
- Received the Testing Luminary award 2014 by the people at STP (they run the STPCon testing conference). Honestly, I am not sure what it means. But everyone likes an award!
- Founding member of the Context-Driven School of Software Testing.
- Charter member of the International Society for Software Testing.
- Charter member (and occasional board member) of the Association for Software Testing.
- Member of IEEE 829-2008 Standard for Software and System Documentation (I repudiate this standard, but I was on the committee and tried to fix it.)
- Member of the Body of Knowledge committee for the ASQ Certified Software Test Engineer program (I repudiate this program, but I was on the committee and tried to fix this, too.)
- Signatory of the Stop ISO 29119 Petition, which establishes clear opposition to this "standard."
- Expert witness on various court cases, including Microsoft antitrust remedies trial (May, 2002) and patent infringement matters.
- Creator of Rapid Software Testing(tm), Session-Based Test Management, and one of the progenitors and advocates of skilled exploratory software testing.
