The Organizers, Advisors and Volunteers are experienced practitioners with specific interest in performance related
topics and and/or significant experience in workshops of this style. The current organizers
are Ross Collard,
Paul Holland, Greg McNelly, Dan Downing, and
Eric Proegler. They are helped by a large group of advisors and volunteers and this page has been created
to recognize them.
The organizers have five main responsibilities:
- Organize workshop sessions and
set the theme or topic for each one.
- Review papers and select participants.
- Participate in workshop sessions
themselves, when feasible.
- Inform members by periodic communications.
- Help represent WOPR in the broader
community.
Ross Collard (WOPR Co-Founder/Organizer) heads Collard & Company, a Manhattan-based consulting firm which specializes
in software quality. A Google search on his name reveals over 100 citations for speeches at major conferences and papers
published on software testing. Ross has computer science degrees from Caltech and Stanford, and has taught for UC Berkeley
and Harvard. His consulting and training clients have included: ADP, Alcatel, American Express, Anheuser-Busch, Apple,
AT&T, Banamex, Bank of America, Baxter Healthcare, Bechtel, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Boeing, British Airways, the CIA,
Ciba Geigy, Cisco, Citibank, Computer Associates, Dell, EDS, Exxon, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, the Federal Reserve Bank,
Ford, Hewlett-Packard, Hughes Aircraft, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan Chase, McGraw Hill, Merck, Microsoft,
Motorola, NASA, Nortel, Novell, Oracle, Procter & Gamble, Prudential, SIAC, Siemens, State Farm Insurance, Swiss Bank,
the U.S. Air Force, and Verizon.
Paul Holland (WOPR Organizer, Facilitator since WOPR3) is the manager of a verification
group at Alcatel in Ottawa Canada. Paul has been involved in the testing of telecommunications gear since 1995. He is currently
testing new releases of Alcatel’s DSL switches that allow telephone companies to sell triple play solutions (Video, Voice, and
Data) to their customers. Prior to joining the DSL team, he had been an automation verification engineer/manager, testing
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) data switches using Tcl based automation - working primarily on Cell Relay line cards,
Frame Relay line cards, and Switched Services. Prior to joining Newbridge (which was purchased by Alcatel in May, 2000),
Paul flew Sea King helicopters for the Canadian Military for a few years (1990-1995), and managed to stress-test the helicopters
in innovative ways.
Dan Downing (WOPR Organizer, WOPR12 Content Owner) is a co-founder and Principal Consultant at Mentora Group,
Inc.(www.mentora.com) , a testing and managed hosting company. Dan is the author
of the 5-Steps of Load Testing, which he taught at Mercury Education Centers, and of numerous presentations, white papers and
articles on performance testing. He teaches load testing and over the past ten years has led over 200 performance projects
on applications ranging from eCommerce to ERP with companies ranging from startups to global enterprises. He is a
regular presenter at STAR, HP Software Universe, Software Test Professionals, and Workshop on Performance and Reliability (WOPR)
conferences.
Eric Proegler (WOPR Organizer, WOPR13 Content Owner) Eric Proegler is an
Engineer for DataBank, a national provider of ECM, Capture, and BPM solutions. Eric works in planning and deployment
contexts with his customers on performance, scalability, HA/DR, and other non-functional requirements. Eric has
previously led performance testing for a software vendor, consulted as a performance tester and technology architect,
and taught public software testing classes.
Greg McNelly (WOPR Organizer, WOPR16 Content Owner) Greg McNelly is currently
an in-house software testing consultant at Progressive Insurance in Cleveland, Ohio. He advises management on
the testing-related aspects of enterprise-level IT initiatives, coaches testers and test leads, and supports
teams faced with critical, challenging testing problems. Greg is a programmer turned tester, with roughly
twenty years of experience developing programs that have helped people insure automobiles, predict laboratory
test results, precision-align machinery, process payrolls, practice math facts and, of course, test software.
Consequently, his work in the field of software testing began around 2003 as a fascination with test automation,
the hazards of which led him to a profound respect for the cognitive challenges of software testing, and for
those who do it well.
Previous Organizers
James Bach (WOPR14 Content Owner, WOPR1 and 2 Facilitator and Advisor)
http://www.satisfice.com is the author of Lessons Learned in Software Testing,
consults and teaches in rapid software testing and test automation. James has served as both an advisor to the organizers on
LAWSTly style workshop issues and logistics and as the facilitator for both WOPR1 and 2, in addition to being the content
owner for WOPR14.
Roland Stens (WOPR Organizer and Web Master) is an independent consultant based in
Vancouver, Canada, who specializes in QA and testing - particularly performance and robustness testing. His broad background
in programming, system analysis, database and network management, testing and project/test management enables him to relate
to all the issues that play during the software development lifecycle. As an active participant in various forums and workshops
related to performance testing, he shares his insights with other testers to help expand their knowledge and vision of the tools
and testing processes.
Scott Barber (WOPR Co-Founder) is the CTO of PerfTestPlus, Inc.
(www.perftestplus.com). PerfTestPlus, Inc. is a software testing consultancy
that focuses on technical and otherwise challenging software testing, mentoring, methodology development and effective test
resource utilization. Scott's particular specialties are testing and analyzing performance for complex systems, developing
customized testing methodologies for individual organizations, embedded systems testing, testing biometric identification
and security systems, group facilitation and authoring instructional materials. Scott is the author of the widely recognized
article series' "User Experience, not Metrics" and "Beyond Performance Testing." Scott has presented at
such venues as STPCon, WSE, WOPR, AWTA, PNSQC, StarEAST, the Rational User's Conference, SQE Testweek, local users’ groups,
and was invited to be a guest lecturer at MIT based on his article "Automated Testing for Embedded Devices".
Additionally, he has numerous papers and articles published through IEEE, Better Software Magazine, Software Test and Performance
Magazine, IBM Developerworks and numerous informational websites. He is a member of the Association for Software Testing,
IEEE, American MENSA, the Context-Driven School of Software Testing and is a signatory to the Manifesto for Agile Software
Development. You can view Scott's resume and a sampling of his work at www.perftestplus.com.
Robert Sabourin (WOPR Organizer) has been involved in all aspects of development,
testing and management of software engineering projects since graduating from McGill University in 1982. He is the Director
of Research and Development at Purkinje Inc, a Montreal based International firm specialized in developing medical software.
Robert was the Manager of Software Development at Alis Technologies for over ten years. He has built several successful software
development teams and champions the implementation of "light effective process" to achieve excellence in delivering
timely commercial quality software solutions.
Robert is a frequent guest lecturer at McGill University where he relates
theoretical aspects of Software Engineering to real world examples and demonstrations. Recently Robert has completed a short
book illustrated by his daughter Catherine. "I Am a Bug" ISBN 0-9685774-0-7 uses the style of a children's book to
explain elements of the software development process in a fun easy to read format.
Robert has been the author of several
papers and presentations relating to software development at a number of international conferences.
Advisors & Volunteers
Linda Hamm (WOPR Advisor/Web Content Manager) is a Systems Developer at SAS Institute Inc.
in Cary, North Carolina. She has worked in various software development and testing positions for the past 15 years. Linda
holds a BS in Computer Science from North Carolina State University. She has extensive experience with ISO and CMM audits and
software development process improvement. She is the author of the SQE article "An Effective Technique for Verifying
Software Design". She spends most of her free time with her wonderful husband Jeff and daughter Jessica.
Doug Hoffman (WOPR Advisor/Volunteer) www.softwarequalitymethods.com
has attended (at last count) 30 LAWSTly style workshops and been kind enough to share the lessons and observations of that
experience with WOPR organizers. Doug has thirty years experience as a consultant, manager, and engineer in the computer and
software industries. Twenty years experience in evaluating, creating, and turning around software quality departments in medium
and small startup companies. Experience with corporate, quality assurance, development, manufacturing, and support functions
and procedures. Management Consultant, Course Developer, Instructor, Author, and Project Manager for SQM, LLC. Adjunct
Instructor for the University of San Francisco. Instructor for UCSC-Extension, ASQ-CSQE, ASQ-CQM, ISO 9000 Auditor. Chair of
ASQ's Santa Clara Valley Section (0613). Founding member, Past Chair, and current Treasurer of the Santa Clara Valley Software
Quality Association (SSQA), a task group of the ASQ. Program Chair for the Third International Conference on Software Quality
(ASQC Software Division). US Program Chair for the First World Congress on Software Quality (ASQC Software Division).
Conference Chair for the Third SSQA Software Quality Conference. Publisher of dozens of papers and speaker at numerous
conferences.
Cem Kaner (WOPR Advisor) www.kaner.com is currently
a Professor of Software Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology where he instructs and researches in the areas of software
engineering, primarily software testing, software metrics, and computer law & ethics. Cem holds a Ph.D. in experimental
psychology (McMaster University), a law degree (J.D. Golden Gate University) and an undergraduate degree focused in mathematics
and philosophy (Brock University). Cem has been a programmer, software development manager, tester, test manager, writer,
technical publications manager, director (managing primarily the writing and test groups), software salesperson, and a consultant
in many of those areas. In his spare time, Cem has managed to author "Lessons Learned in Software Testing" with
James Bach, & Bret Pettichord (John Wiley & Sons, 2002), "Bad Software: What To Do When Software Fails" with
David Pels ( John Wiley & Sons, 1998) and the best selling book on software testing in the history of the field "Testing
Computer Software (2nd Ed.)" with Jack Falk, & Hung Quoc Nguyen (International Thomson Computer Press, 1993)
The following people have assisted us in numerous ways organizing our meetings:
- Nick Wolf
- Andy Hohenner
- Richard Leeke
- All the unnamed resources that made our lives easier at our host sites
- Please contact us if you
think we forgot to recognize people for their efforts.
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People behind WOPR
