The Authors
Paul Gerrard
Paul is the Principal of
.
He received his M.A. in engineering science from Oxford University
and MSc and DIC in structural engineering from Imperial College, London University.
Having worked briefly as a consulting civil engineer, he moved into software
engineering in 1981. For ten years, he worked as a developer, designer, project manager and consultant
working initially on engineering applications and later, in the
telecommunications and IT arenas.
He has worked for
and Systeme Evolutif as a test manager, consultant
and trainer for a diverse range of clients in the banking, insurance,
government, aviation and manufacturing industries in addition to central
government, software houses and utilities.
Paul has been Co-Programme Chair for the (BCS
SIGIST) which is the primary
forum for software testers in the UK and is also a member of the
that created the British Standards BS7925-1 (Glossary of Software Testing Terms)
and BS7925-2 (Software Component Testing). He was the founding Chair and is currently
member of the
(ISEB) Testing
Certificate Board whose aim is to establish a certification scheme for testing professionals and training organisations.
He is a regular keynote speaker at seminars and conferences in Europe and the
US and been a keynote speaker at EuroSTAR, STAR in the US, Mercury Interactive
User Group, CMG TestFrame conference, the Norwegian and Swedish and Danish
specialist interest groups in software testing and won the ‘Best Presentation’ award at EuroSTAR ’95.
Paul has written many papers and articles on software testing, most of which
are available on the
web site. These include topics such as
Client/server, Internet and E-Business testing, risk based testing, test
automation, test process improvement, testing requirements, performance testing,
business simulation testing and test methodology.
He has created many methodology and training assets. He wrote the
system test methodology, SysTeMet™, training courses in Acceptance
Testing, Risk Based Testing, E-Business Testing and a ISEB accredited
Foundation Course in Software testing. He created the
which includes a database that can generate weighted test process
improvement opportunities.
Paul is the webmaster for the web site
which has a searchable database of web links to papers and articles on software
testing, an online forum for testers and TBT training courses in software
testing.
is a software testing consultancy specialising in E-Business testing,
RAD, test process improvement and the selection and implementation of CAST Tools. Evolutif are founder members of the DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Method) consortium, which was set up to develop a non-proprietary Rapid Application Development method.
has been taken up across the industry by many forward-looking organisations.
Paul's email address is paul AT gerrardconsulting DOT com.
Neil Thompson
Neil Thompson is an independent testing consultant and
testing manager, serving blue-chip clients through , either directly or in
association with other consultancies. He worked with Systeme Evolutif for one of
the projects on which the book is based; this was a follow-on assignment enabled
by an earlier shared success with the same bank.
Neil has worked for 25 years in information systems,
initially with a hardware manufacturer and two of the UK’s leading software
houses, followed by a period abroad with an international user organisation.
After a further ten years as a management consultant with global firms, Neil
launched his own company in 1998, since when he has fulfilled several successful
assignments for high-profile organisations in the financial services, retail,
pharmaceutical and information technology sectors. His overall experience also
embraces the “network” industries – energy, transport, water and
communications – plus other complex and mission-critical applications.
He therefore has a wide perspective on the IS
business, including roles as a programmer, systems analyst and project manager.
He has shared the frustrations of users and the sleep deprivation of operators,
and as a scientist with artistic tendencies he now feels fulfilled as a testing
specialist. This sometimes leads to broader-based work around quality assurance,
change management and process consulting.
Neil’s testing expertise began with intuitive unit
testing using various languages from assembler upwards, then developed with
exposure to structured methodologies and leadership of system testing and
acceptance testing. He became the leading testing expert with one of the
world’s top management consultancies, specialising in systems integration, and
is now active amongst the UK’s most prominent testers in sharing experiences
and ideas with colleagues in Europe, the USA and beyond. This is based on a long
record of speaking at conferences and seminars, and writing magazine articles:
for example, Neil spoke at the first two EuroSTAR events (in 1993 and 1994), and
his 1999 paper sowed some of the seeds of this book. He is collaborating with
Paul Gerrard on a tutorial for the 2002 EuroSTAR conference.
He is a graduate of Cambridge University (UK), and a member
of the British Computer Society (plus its specialist interest groups in Software
Testing and Configuration Management). He holds the ISEB Foundation Certificate
in software testing and has applied to take the Practitioner Certificate
examination during 2002. Neil is also a Certified Management Consultant
(Institute of Management Consultancy, UK) and a member of the IEEE.
Neil's email address is: neilt AT tiscl DOT com
(email address is not a link to foil spammers).
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