About the Author
William E. Lewis holds a B.A. in mathematics and an M.S. in operations research and has 38 years of experience in the computer industry. Currently, he is the founder, president, and CEO of Smartware Technologies, Inc., a quality assurance consulting firm that specializes in software testing. He is the inventor of SmartTest™, a patent-pending software testing tool that creates optimized test cases/data based upon the requirements (see www.smartwaretechnologies.com for more information about the author).
He is a certified quality analyst (CQA) and certified software test engineer (CSTE) sponsored by the Quality Assurance Institute (QAI) of Orlando, Florida. Over the years, he has presented several papers to conferences. In 2004 he presented a paper to QAI’s Annual International Information Technology Quality Conference, entitled “Cracking the Requirements/Test Barrier.” He also speaks at meetings of the American Society for Quality and the Association of Information Technology Practitioners.
Mr. Lewis was a quality assurance manager for CitiGroup where he managed the testing group; documented all the software testing, quality assurance processes and procedures; actively participated in the CitiGroup CMM effort; and designed numerous WinRunner automation scripts.
Mr. Lewis was a senior technology engineer for Technology Builders, Inc., of Atlanta, where he trained and consulted in the requirements-based testing area, focusing on leading-edge testing methods and tools.
He was an assistant director with Ernst & Young, LLP, located in Las Colinas, Texas. He joined E & Y in 1994, authoring the company’s software configuration management, software testing, and application evolutionary handbooks, and helping to develop the navigator/fusion methodology application improvement route maps. He was the quality assurance manager for several application development projects and has extensive experience in test planning, test design, execution, evaluation, reporting, and automated testing. He was also the director of the ISO initiative, which resulted in ISO9000 international certification for Ernst & Young.
Lewis also worked for the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on an overseas contract assignment as a quality assurance consultant. His duties included full integration and system testing, and he served on the automated tool selection committee and made recommendations to management. He also created software testing standards and procedures.
In 1998 Lewis retired from IBM after 28 years. His jobs included 12 years as a curriculum/course developer and instructor, and numerous years as a system programmer/analyst and performance analyst. An overseas assignment included service in Seoul, Korea, where he was the software engineering curriculum manager for the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), which is considered the MIT of higher education in Korea. Another assignment was in Toronto at IBM Canada’s headquarters, where he was responsible for upgrading the corporate education program. In addition, he has traveled throughout the United States and to Rome, Amsterdam, Southampton, Hong Kong, and Sydney, teaching software development and quality assurance classes with a specialty in software testing.
After serving in the air force, he worked for Radiation, Inc., a space company in Melbourne, Florida, on a Nimbus B&D satellite contract as a real-time programmer.
Lewis’s first job was as a real-time programmer for General Electric and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. He wrote down-link real-time programs to monitor and feedback Apollo Space Craft telemetry to the up-link computers. His first professional program was to sample the Apollo hydrogen tanks’ PSIs to trigger the hydrogen tanks to be emptied during a launch abort.
He has also taught at the university level for 5 years as an adjunct professor, publishing during that time a five-book series on computer problem solving.
For further information about the training and consulting services provided by Smartware Technologies, Inc., contact: [email protected].
Technical Contributors
Gunasekaran (Guna) Veerapillai is a Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA) and Project Management Professional (PMP) from PMI USA. After 15 years of retail banking experience in Canara Bank, India, he moved to IT in 1995, and has managed the EDP Section at Bangalore. He has been working in various roles in the testing arena and has turned out several testing projects in the banking domain for various clients around the globe. He specializes in niche areas such as test process assessment and automation assessment. He has worked for companies such as Thinksoft, HCL Technologies, and Covansys. He also completed the Certified Ethical Hacker certification from EC. He headed the testing division at the Bangalore unit of Covansys before moving to his current assignment.
Guna heads the Test Automation Practice at Wipro Technologies (www.wipro.com). This practice carries out niche automation activities including the creation of required automation frameworks, automation assessment, and tools evaluation, apart from executing end-to-end test automation projects. He has contributed papers and presentations to international software testing conferences conducted by QAI, Swiss Testing Conference, ISQT, QSIT, Stickyminds.com. etc.
He dedicates his contribution in this book to his life partner, Manimala, who always supported and motivated him to reach the position where he is now. Guna can be reached at [email protected].
David D. Dobbs, a project management professional (PMP) and a ISTQB Certified Tester–Foundation Level (CTFL), draws on over 25 years of project management experience and quality management in the construction, software development, telecommunication, and information technology industries.
David managed construction projects as partner/president of Exterior Designs Landscape for fourteen years. During that time, his completed projects appeared in the Dallas Morning News and were featured by Dallas–Ft. Worth Home and Gardens.
David began his career in technology in 1993 as a software test engineer for Aldus software products before moving to the telecommunication industry. During his telecommunication career, he progressed from a senior test engineer for SONET access and transmission craft tools to the senior manager of network validation infrastructure for Fujitsu Network Communications.
In 2002, David began teaching applied project management in academic and corporate settings. In the same year, he started developing the Agile Project Office approach to project management that integrates quality management methodologies with Project Office architecture.
Since 2004, David has implemented project management methodologies for two national retail companies. He currently manages the I.S. Project Office for a major retailer in Irving, Texas.