Earlier this month at EuroSTAR in Edinburgh, I was unexpectedly honored with the Testing Excellence Award after being nominated by my team at KPMG. Undeservedly receiving the same award as one of my heroes, Jerry Weinberg, I was also introduced on the evening by one of my mentors and friends Michael Bolton.

As I said on the night, software testing is a team sport, and for over 25 years I’ve been working with some of the best testers from around the globe (12 countries) on countless projects for Fortune 100 companies. One of my most proud achievements in managing the careers of software testers is that my teams have produced a CTO from UC Berkley, 11 Global Heads of QA, 7 Test Directors, 11 Vice Presidents, 2 Global Product Owners, and 2 Heads of Engineering from companies all over the world. 

I have also tried to contribute to the software testing industry body of public knowledge through publishing 100s of articles and interviews on Quality Remarks, LinkedIn, and loads of personal and professional journals/blogs. I’ve also had the privilege to present talks and workshops at testing and technology conferences and meetups all over the world on topics including test strategy, managing test teams, and working with C-level sponsorship including: AST CAST, QAI, EuroSTAR, STARCanada, STAR East, KWSQA, BCS, MOT, ATD, RTC, Copenhagen CT, STP Con, QualityJam, NSTC, Tricentis Accelerate, and expo:QA. 

Whether being elected to the Board of the Association for Software Testing and serving as its Executive Vice President, developing a training and job placement program with the non-profit Per Scholas, or working with Roya Mahboob to get the Afghan Girls Robotics Team to ATD, I’ve also tried to give back to the community through volunteering and social justice and equality initiatives.

I owe a great deal to the international testing community and have been incredibly fortunate for all the speaking, publishing, mentoring opportunities to try to make positive changes for testers and technologists all over the world. It was an honor to receive this award and I will forever be grateful to the folks at EuroSTAR and my team for the recognition of my contributions to the software testing industry.

Thank you!