QW2002 Paper 2P2 Mr. Eric Patel (RapidSQA) Creating Quality From Scratch: How To Build a Test Organization

Key Points

• A fully-functional test department takes time
• Get ready to simultaneously take on multiple roles and responsibilities
• Make sure the quantity of your tasks does not adversely affect the quality of your tasks

Presentation Abstract

With more and more companies realizing the need for testing throughout the product development process, there’s a growing demand for bigger, better QA teams. If you find yourself the first member of a newly formed department, it’s likely you’ll be asked to do the testing and build the team simultaneously. This presentation presents a strategy for meeting the day-to-day testing challenges, while planning for the future of the department. It tells you how you can lay the foundation and build the house ? all at the same time.

About the Author

Eric Patel is Chief Quality Officer for RapidSQA, a Software Quality Service Provider (SQSP) of training and consulting solutions. He is co-founder of the Nokia Quality Forum (NQF) Boston and the QAI Greater Boston Software Quality Assurance Association, and also is creator of the RapidSQA methodology for Web testing. Eric has 11+ years of experience in software testing, test management, and software quality assurance.

Eric is a frequent presenter at software quality conferences and meetings. He has been certified by ASQ as a quality manager and software quality engineer, and by QAI as a software test engineer. As Deputy Regional Councilor for the ASQ Software Division Region 1, Eric maintains active memberships in ASQ and IEEE. Published in Software Quality Professional (SQP) and STQE, he also serves as a reviewer for SQP and The Journal of Software Testing Professionals. In addition, Eric is co-founder and instructor with Northeastern University's new Certificate Program in Software Quality Assurance. He holds a BSEE from the University of Vermont.