QW2002 Panel Session 4Q Mr. Ross Collard (Collard & Company) & Mr. Bret Pettichord (Pettichord Consulting) The Value of Agile Testing

Key Points

• Fact: agile testing is a hot new item.
• Claim: agile testing has great potential!
• Counter-claim: it's bunk, or even dangerous!

About the Panel Moderator

Ross Collard is president of Collard & Company, a consulting firm which is headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. His consulting and training clients have included: ADP, Alcatel, American Express, Anheuser-Busch, Apple, AT&T, Banamex, Bank of America, Bechtel, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Boeing, British Airways, the CIA, Ciba Geigy, Cisco, Citibank, Computer Associates, Dayton Hudson, Dell, EDS, Exxon, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Federal Reserve, Ford, Hewlett-Packard, Hughes Aircraft, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan, McGraw Hill, MCI, Merck, Microsoft, Motorola, NASA, Nortel, Novell, Procter & Gamble, Prudential, Sears Roebuck, Swiss Bank, U.S. Air Force, Verizon and Worldcom.

He has conducted seminars on business and information technology topics for businesses, governments and universities, including George Washington, Harvard and New York Universities, MIT, Stanford and U.C. Berkkeley.He has a BE in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Zealand (where he grew up), an MS in Computer Science from the California Institute of Technology and an MBA from Stanford University. His set of books on software testing is due to be published next year.

Bret Pettichord is an independent consultant with experience using a wide variety of test tools and approaches. He's developed automated tests for software in various domains, including publishing, accounting, sales, systems management, education and benefits administration. The tutorial builds on Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context- Driven Approach, the best-selling book he coauthored with Cem Kaner and James Bach. Many of his writings are collected at www.pettichord.com.

Specializing in software testing and test automation, Bret has 14 years experience in software development, including positions as a staff consultant at Segue Software and a test automation lead at BMC and then IBM/Tivoli before becoming an independent consultant. Recent clients have included Texas Instruments, Rational Software, Texas Department of Human Services, Deliotte Consulting, Whisperwire and Netpliance. He learned about software testing as a tax programmer at Arthur Andersen and a software tester and automator at Interleaf.