Managing QA Resources over a diversity of products for more than 30 years. Software Quality is always about the customer, understanding their needs and providing various development teams with a customer-centric assessment of product quality, usability, durability and stability. Training QA Engineers to think like the customer has been my goal for more than 20 years.

I run a small business writing and publishing novels and directing/producing films in the sci-fi and fantasy genres for youth and young adults, under the name Basil Sprig. I have experience from the initial concept to the finished product (doing both book signings and film festivals) at pretty much every stage along the way. As Producer I work with other talented people who I have organized to help write, film, create music, create props, act, and edit, but I also participate hands-on in the entire production process, and have done everything myself as well, except acting.

As QA Manager at RAF Technology, I hire new QA Engineers, SDETS, Testers, and some data entry people. I supply all the QA resources to five project managers, each with multiple projects ongoing simultaneously. I keep up to speed on every project so I can assist QA Leads with resource and test planning. I am SME on most RAF product lines.Products include: client-server postal imaging solution, high-speed database solutions, USPS Certified directory, postal scale solution, mobile OCR and directory product, and web-based ordering and licensing solution, and various web services that provide RAF core recognition and address-finding products to third party vendors.I designed, in collaboration with the team, and wrote the first draft of our test automation infrastructure and currently work hands-on with engineers to keep it up to date, adding interfaces to and tests for new products.At RAF we utilize our own home-brewed test infrastructure that interfaces with third party products and open source tools for test management and reporting, test resource planning and requirements traceability. Our test infrastructure is data-driven using a common interface and common cross-project test configurations, using components written in C++, C# and Java, and interfaces with SpiraTeam, Visual Studio, Eclipse, and Selenium.

In my role of QA Analyst:Sr. Engineer in Quality Assurance, QA Lead, some QA Management assignmentsEstablished standardization of test tools and methodologies across projects.Performed and participated in audits on select projects.Further development as SME on RAF Products.Mentoring and guidance of RAF QA Leads.Performed all aspects of recruiting and hiring of 8 employees, except for the H.R. aspects.Prior to that as Senior QA Engineer and then QA Lead:Designed and implemented a data-driven test framework that all of our projects could use for test automation, based on input from very diverse projects and engineers with many different perspectives. Using C++, Visual Studio, XML-based configuration, TCP/IP socket interface.Wrote the company Quality Manual which was given the endorsement of the QA Manager and then made corporate policy by the CEO. Brought a project up to ISO 9001 compliance for a government contract.Worked with OEMs and Customers to integrate our client-server software into mail imaging and sorting systems.Oversaw the testing and roll-out of RAF's intranet and web portal, integrating external customer issue tracking with internal bug tracking, a web forum, several wikis, and an XPlanner installation.In my prior role as QA Lead on various projects:QA Leadership for a major client-server project developed for the U.S. Treasury Department, and a subsequent port of the same product from a Windows Client- Server model to a Java J2EE model. Worked hands-on with the customer Project Manager and design team to understand, document, and test the system. Participated in the interviewing and hiring of the team to staff the project.Prior to that I was with RAF as a start-up performing in the original dual-role of IT admin and Tester. I was responsible for testing all RAF products and maintenance of the RAF network and IT infrastructure.