Alan Page, Director of Test Excellence, Microsoft

Alan Page is one of Microsoft's first Test Architects and currently chairs the test group in Microsoft's Engineering Excellence team. Among other things, this means that Alan teaches testers how to be better testers, and he has designed and teaches courses for Microsoft's most senior testers and test managers.

Beyond teaching, Alan creates and updates technical courses, working with test teams across Microsoft to help them reach their goals, and writes on his blog and elsewhere. He has been a tester for over 15 years, and has been at Microsoft since 1995.

Anita George, Test Manager, Microsoft

Anita joined Microsoft in 1994. She has worked in a variety of test manager positions for Visual C++, Windows, and most recently for Microsoft.com. She currently manages a team of testers focused on the quality of the corporate site, the download center and volume licensing sites as well as the publishing platform and backend technology for collecting and reporting statistics for these and many other sites in the microsoft.com community. Throughout her career, her focus has been to improve engineering practices and bring Test discipline to her teams. Prior to joining Microsoft, Anita spent 3 years working as a Control Systems Engineer. Anita's blog is at http://blogs.msdn.com/anitag.

Ron Pihlgren, Senior SDET Lead, SQL Server Business Intelligence, Microsoft

Ron has worked in testing at Microsoft for that past 10 years, most of that time in the Visual C++ Product team. He recently moved to a startup group in the SQL Server Business Intelligence team. Prior to working in test, Ron worked for 2 years in developer support at Microsoft focusing on Visual C++, MFC, and database development. Prior to joining Microsoft, Ron worked as a developer in a number of companies on platforms ranging from single chip microcontrollers to IBM 3090 mainframes. Ron’s blog is at http://blogs.msdn.com/ronpih.

Josh Poley, SDET, Microsoft

Josh Poley has been a tester at Microsoft since 1998. He initially worked on the very first version of the Passport authentication service (currently called Windows Live ID). Then, in the spring of 2000, Josh moved over and joined a small handful of people who were starting to work on a project code-named Xbox. His initial responsibilities covered various pieces of the low-level operating system (file systems, peripheral communication, etc.). Shortly after the Xbox game console launched in 2001, Josh took over as lead of the Kernel Test Team and remained in charge of validating the core operating system throughout the development and launch of the Xbox 360. Then, in the spring of 2007, Josh joined the Zune team where he is currently working on new media devices.

Keith Stobie, Principal SDET, Test Architect, Microsoft

Keith plans, designs, and reviews software architecture and tests for Microsoft. His current project, Protocol Tools and Test, uses model-based testing against protocol documents. Previously Keith worked in Live Search on QnA and Quality of Service dashboard. His first Microsoft project, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF, originally Indigo), involved XML Messaging and Web Services using SOAP. He is currently a board member of the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference (PNSQC). Keith was also active in the Web Services Interoperability organization's (WS-I.org) Test Working Group creating test tools for profile analysis and conformance.

A leader in testing methodology, tools technology, and quality process, he directed and instructed in QA and Test process and strategy at BEA Systems. He was also Test Architect at Informix, designing tests for the Parallel Server product, and Manager of Quality and Process Improvement. He was a qualified instructor for Systematic Software Testing and for Software Inspections, and has been active in the software task group of ASQ and a participant in IEEE 2003 and 2003.2 standards on test methods. He has a BS in computer science from Cornell University.

Julie Madhusoodanan, Senior Test Lead, Windows Experience Group, Microsoft

Greetings! I joined Microsoft in 1999 and was part of the Office Division for three consecutive releases. I am a Senior Test Lead and currently lead a team of Software Design Engineers in Test in the Windows Division. I have a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Computer Science. I've been involved in testing, designing and automating software across a wide variety of areas ranging from UI, APIs, Web Services and Databases. The diversity of challenges that come up in the test discipline has always been an attractive aspect of the roles I've had at Microsoft to date. I am very keen on identifying new and improved test strategies, tools, processes and customer connection programs which will aid in shipping products that delight our customers.

Alan Myrvold, Senior Security Development Engineer in Test, Office Security Testing team, Microsoft

I joined Microsoft in April 2005 as a security tester in the Office Trustworthy Computing team, and helped support security testing within the Office team during Office 2007.  Prior to joining Microsoft, I managed testing, development, and security assurance at Entrust, and performed testing and development at Cognos, both in Ottawa, Canada.  I also helped review the books Hunting Security Bugs and Lessons Learned in Software Testing.  In addition to security testing, I am fascinated by how software testers learn their craft, and interested in tester education.

James Rodrigues, Director of Windows International Testing, Microsoft

As the Director of Windows International Testing, Jim manages a world-wide organization responsible for the quality assurance of all International versions of the Windows Operating System.
- The team owns the quality assurance of Windows core components which enable a single worldwide binary design.
- They ensure the quality of features which make Windows more relevant and tailored for world-wide markets
- They ensure quality assurance of other core operating system features.
Jim is a Microsoft veteran, having managed various test teams and shipped many products across Microsoft. He also holds software patents for areas of performance and test automation. Prior to working for Microsoft, Jim spent five years as a software developer at Loral Infrared & Optics division.

Bj Rollison, Test Architect, Engineering Excellence, Microsoft

Hi, my name is Bj Rollison and I am a Test Architect in the Engineering Excellence group at Microsoft. I have been at Microsoft since 1994. My primary role is designing and developing testing curriculum, and teaching SDETs at Microsoft the profession of software testing. We also do internal consulting with Microsoft business divisions, and occasionally premier customers. This is the coolest job I've ever had (at least at Microsoft) because I get to meet so many bright and exceptionally talented people everyday (both inside and outside of Microsoft) who challenge me intellectually and help me learn more about this discipline and cool new technologies. My previous roles at the company included Test Lead of the setup team for international versions of Windows 95, International Test Manager for Internet Explorer, and Director of Test Training.

Scott Barber, PerfTestPlus, Inc.

Scott Barber is the Chief Technology Officer of PerfTestPlus, Inc. Vice President and Executive Director of the Association of Software Testing and co-founder of the Workshop on Performance and Reliability. Scott’s blog is about performance testing and best practices

Dave Catlett, Test Architect, Microsoft

Dave Catlett has been developing people, tools and techniques for testing software for over 16 years. In his current role as Principal Test Architect for the Microsoft Windows Engineering and Tools team, Dave has been researching and implementing tools and processes for testability, risk evaluation and complexity analysis, all in the relentless pursuit of Quality, Engineering efficiency, and Delighting our customers: Q.E.D.

Evan Goldring, Lead Test Architect, Mobile Communications Product Group, Microsoft

Evan received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Computer Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH where he also minored in economics. His first job at Microsoft was as a college intern working on a Windows CE precursor called Tiger, which ran the Set Top Box for an interactive television network. After graduating from Case Western he ran his own software business which developed internet communications applications, such as e-mail and newsreaders, for Windows 9x and OS/2. He came back to Microsoft after IBM stopped supporting OS/2 in April, 1999 working on embedded devices - from the DreamCast to Portable Media Center to Windows Mobile v4.1 to v6.0 and Windows CE v2.12 to v6.0 - the whole time. He grew up as an SDET at Microsoft and has lead the Multimedia test team, was the Test Manager of the Portable Media Center v1 project (now Zune), and has served as the Development Manager and Group Manager for the internal engineering services and tools team. Most recently, he became the Test Architect for MCPG in October 2006. He grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and remains a devoted Steelers fan. He also works with local area high school computer science students through several Microsoft outreach programs.

Jason Taylor, VP of Security Services, Security Innovation

He has spent his career focused on application development and testing with a primary focus on application security. Prior to joining Security Innovation, he served as test architect, security lead, and development manager at Microsoft for various releases of Internet Explorer and Microsoft Windows.  For more on Jason, see here.

Michael "The Braidy Tester" Hunter, Sr. SDET, Microsoft

Michael "The Braidy Tester" Hunter tests software for Microsoft and reality for himself. Despite having developed for twenty years and tested for ten, he is still amazed that he gets paid to play all day. Michael publishes his blogs and other good stuff at http://www.thebraidytester.com.

Sagiv Hadya, Sr. SDET, Microsoft

Sagiv Hadaya is a senior test lead for mobile search and services, and has been at Microsoft for almost 9 years working on various projects from MSTV clients to .NET compact framework to .live services and mobile solutions with areas of expertise in Web services design and efficient testing.

Vishal Chowdhary, SDET II, Microsoft

Vishal is in his third year at Microsoft. He holds a Bachelors degree in Engineering from Bombay University & Masters in Computer Science from State University at New York, Stony Brook. He started with the BizTalk Server team, where he owned the new Operations OM API testing, along with parts of BizTalk Server tracking features. Presently, Vishal is involved with designing the test framework and test planning for future versions of BizTalk Server. He is focused on decreasing test cost by employing new testing strategies and processes that prevent defects from entering the product.

Tim Lamey, Senior SDET, Microsoft

Tim has been in testing for 12 years and joined Microsoft in 2001 when Great Plains Software was acquired. During his career, he has focused on techniques, tools and processes for testing business applications. He is currently the technical lead for the team providing tools for testing Dynamics AX.

Jacek Czerwonka, Test Lead, Microsoft

Jacek Czerwonka is currently a Test Lead on the Windows Sustained Engineering team. Before joining Microsoft, Jacek worked as a developer for a software company whose expertise was in design and development of distributed backoffice applications. In 2001, Jacek joined Microsoft's Windows Sustained Engineering team and testing became his primary job.

After few years of working as a tester and later a test lead on the servicing team, Jacek got involved in development of code and test analysis tools. Currently, Jacek is based in Bangalore working with Microsoft Research India on the second iteration of the tools.

Ross Smith, Director of Test, Windows Core Security Team, Microsoft

Ross Smith has been making mistakes for more than 40 years. He has been in the software industry for almost 20 years, developing and testing software on everything from mainframe systems to handheld devices and PC's. He has also been a jail guard, union president, cartoonist, and graphic artist. He began his Microsoft career in Product Support in 1991 and has been a Test Lead, Test Manager, and Test Architect. He has been a long-time member of the Test Architect's Group, and has worked on every version of Windows and Office since 1995. He holds five software patents, and is currently director of the Windows Core Security Test team. Ross recently finished co-authoring the book "The Practical Guide to Defect Prevention" and launching the companion site www.defectprevention.org. He lives with his wife and four kids on a remote island in Puget Sound.

Federico Silva Armas, SDET II, Asp.Net QA, Microsoft

Federico has been in Microsoft for 5 and a half years now. He was a college hire from Technical Institute of Monterrey (Mexico) and has been working on the Asp.Net QA team all this time. In his own words: "I was introduced to computers at a young age, and decided that I wanted to develop software after learning to write computer games. I started learning the craft of software testing after joining Microsoft and had the luck of being surrounded by very talented senior testers from the start that helped me improve." He is currently a tech lead and one of his passions has been to design and develop the framework used to automate tests for Asp.Net.

John Neystadt, Lead Program Manager, Forefront Unified Access Gateway, Microsoft Israel Development Center

John (Jenya) Neystadt was born in Moscow, and moved to Israel as a kid. He is self-taught and is working 13 years in software industry, doing dev, test and program management roles. During last 5 years he is working in Microsoft Israel Development Center on Forefront products.

Joon Lee, Sr. SDET, AdCenter Display Ads Platform, Microsoft

Joon Lee joined Microsoft in 1996 as an SDET in WebData. He is currently an SDET on the AdCenter team and is passionate about the challenges of verifying a system that must scale to billions of requests a day.

Anu Arora, Principal SDET, Engineering Excellence, Microsoft Corporation

Anu Arora is a Knowledge Engineer on Microsoft's Engineering Excellence team. As a part of small team of instructors in testing for the entire company, she is responsible for the training and development of test leads and managers at Microsoft. She ensures that they have the learning resources and training to ship great products. In her job, Anu creates, modifies course curriculum and imparts training. She also drives company-wide initiatives related to the test discipline. These span in areas like engineering leadership, manager capability, internal tools, the career models and community events.

Anu has been in Microsoft for 8 years, where she worked as a Test Lead and a Test manager shipping various products before moving to Engineering Excellence. Prior to working in Microsoft, with a Masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering, Anu worked on building helicopters in India. On her move to Australia, she explored a training career as a technical training consultant for Centrelink, Sydney.

Aditya Kakrania, Senior Security Engineer, Security Innovation

Aditya has been responsible for developing software security products such as Holodeck and conducting security penetration tests for the company’s clients. He has delivered dozens of talks and training classes to Security Innovation customers and at industry-leading conferences. Prior to joining Security Innovation, he worked at Microsoft as an SDE and SDET for the Visual Studio, Internet Explorer, and Windows groups.

James A. Whittaker, Google

James A. Whittaker has spent his career in software testing. He was an early thought leader in model-based testing where his PhD dissertation from the University of Tennessee became a standard reference on the subject. While a professor at Florida Tech, he founded the world’s largest academic software testing research center and helped make testing a degree track for undergraduates. Before he left Florida Tech, his research group had grown to over 60 students and faculty and had secured over $12 million in research awards and contracts. During his tenure at FIT he wrote How to Break Software and the series follow-ups How to Break Software Security (with Hugh Thompson) and How to Break Web Software (with Mike Andrews). His latest book, Exploratory Testing, was released in September, 2009. His research team also developed the highly acclaimed runtime fault injection tool Holodeck and marketed it through their startup Security Innovation, Inc.

Click here to watch his video.

Matthew Heusser, Technical Staff, Socialtext

Matthew Heusser is a member of the technical staff at Socialtext, specializing in Quality Assurance. Spending his entire professional career developing, testing, and managing software projects, Matt is also a columnist for Software Test and Performance Magazine and a part-time instructor in information systems at Calvin College. The initial lead organizer of the Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference, Matt holds a master's degree in Computer Information Systems he earned at night while programming during the day, and is the founder of the Grand Rapids Perl User's Group and GRTester's RoundTable.