James Christie

James is currently working as a freelance consultant through his own limited company, Claro Testing Ltd.
He is a professional member of the British Computer Society (MBCS), a Chartered IT Professional (CITP) and holds the ISEB Practitioner Certificate in Software Testing.
James has 24 years commercial IT experience, covering test management (the full life-cycle from agreeing the strategy and budget, writing the test plans, supervising execution, through to implementation) and test consultancy (writing and reviewing testing processes). His experience also covers information security management, project management, IT audit, systems analysis and programming. This has been largely in financial services, mainly with General Accident and IBM (working
with a range of blue-chip clients).
James left IBM when he had the chance to take voluntary redundancy which allowed him to pursue his ambition to take a Masters degree.
In 2007 James successfully completed a full-time MSc in IT at the University of Abertay. His master’s project and dissertation, for which he received an A grade, was “Integrating usability testing with formal software testing models”.

James Christie’s Specialties:

James is particularly interested in how the quality of applications can be improved by incorporating usability engineering and testing techniques. He is a member of the Usability Professionals Association.
He is keen to use testing models that move beyond the traditional V Model. He is enthusiastic about TMap® for test management and TPI® for test process improvement.
See his website (www.clarotesting.com/page7.htm) for more information

James Christie’s Experience

Independent software testing consultant and owner

Claro Testing Ltd

(Information Technology and Services industry)

February 2007 — Present (2 years 10 months)

After completing his MSc James set up Claro Testing Ltd in order to win consultancy contracts. He studied for and passed the ISEB Practitioner Certificate in Software Testing. He undertook further study and research for the specialist consultancy service he's offering in incorporating usability engineering techniques into software testing. He has written articles for Testing Experience magazine (www.testingexperience.com), one on the limitations of the V Model, another about the implications for usability testing of offshoring development and the latest on “business logic” security testing. He has also been carrying out work for the charity of which he is a trustee, including the development of an accountancy package.
Project Test Manager

Norwich Union Life

(Information Technology and Services industry)

October 2007 — April 2008 (7 months)

James was working at NU Life as test manager on a large migration programme jointly run by NU and Swiss Re. He wrote the master test plan for the Finance Project, supervised the detailed test planning, and managed the test execution.
Freelance consultant

Scripture Union Scotland

(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Religious Institutions industry)

February 2007 — March 2007 (2 months)

James carried out an IT audit, reviewing the security of the IT operation, and the use being made of IT. He followed that up with the production of a plan for a Business Continuity Programme, and a staff IT security policy with educational material.
Test Manager

IBM Global Services

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; IBM; Information Technology and Services industry)

August 2004 — July 2005 (1 year )

James worked on three projects. He planned and prepared the testing for an internal IBM project which collated and presented via a web interface the reference material required by IT architects and pricers to prepare bids for new business.
He then worked as a consultant at J&C Clark, the Somerset based major footwear retailer, advising them on how to plan and conduct operational acceptance testing for a major systems replacement programme which was implementing SAP and Tivoli.
James final role with IBM was as the Test Manager for a project delivering a new benefits payment system to the Dept for Work & Pensions in Blackpool. James' role entailed liaising with the client, the IBM delivery team and EDS (the solution operator) to interpret the functional and non-functional requirements into a test plan, prepare the testing then manage it through the test execution phases.
Security Transition Manager

IBM Global Services

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; IBM; Information Technology and Services industry)

June 2001 — August 2004 (3 years 3 months)

As a Security Transition Manager James was responsible for running projects to identify and agree the required level of information security for new outsourced accounts. This entailed documenting the client’s information security requirements and planning the work required to deliver these requirements whilst complying with the contract and IBM information security standards. James had to ensure that the existing security service was baselined, and agree with IBM management and the customer the roles and responsibilities for delivering security, and ensure that IBM set up an appropriate organisational structure and processes.
James’ clients were Nokia (Finland), Boots (Nottingham) and AstraZeneca (Cheshire).
Test Manager

IBM Global Services

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; IBM; Information Technology and Services industry)

April 1997 — June 2001 (4 years 3 months)

During this spell James worked mainly at the General Accident (latterly Norwich Union) Account.
James was the Test Manager for the Personal Systems Y2K Project. This role required strong project management, analytical and leadership skills. The deadlines were tough and inflexible but the amended systems were implemented successfully on time.
He then acted as Test Manager on a project to migrate IBM Perth to the IBM infrastructure whilst providing a seamless service to the main client, General Accident.
James also worked as a consultant at the Bank of Scotland, developing and trialling Operational Acceptance Testing processes.
He also worked as a consultant at the IBM account at Cazenove & Co, planning performance testing for a migration project, defining a testing strategy and writing new testing processes.
Following the merger between GA, Commercial Union and Norwich Union, James acted as the Test Manager for IBM on an integration project.
Business Analyst

IBM Global Services

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; IBM; Information Technology and Services industry)

November 1996 — April 1997 (6 months)

James joined IBM in November 1996 when GA outsourced its UK IT function to IBM. He was immediately seconded back to GA to define the outline business requirements for new MI data warehousing systems that GA was developing, and to review a business critical accounting system to decide whether it should be replaced before 2000 or made Y2K compliant. This review was delayed until James was available because the client specifically requested that he should carry it out.
Senior IS Analyst (project leader)

General Accident

(Insurance industry)

March 1994 — October 1996 (2 years 8 months)

James successfully led three sub-projects within GA's strategic MI project. He managed two throughout the full development life cycle (SG Motor Insurance MI and Travel Insurance MI) and one from system design onwards (Sumo 3.1 the final implementation phase of the strategic MI system). These sub-projects were respectively 3.5, 1.2 and 2.1 man-years.
This role provided valuable experience of project management, definition of user requirements, handling customer relationships and team leading.
Computer Auditor and Senior Computer Auditor

General Accident

(Insurance industry)

December 1987 — March 1994 (6 years 4 months)

James worked in the following areas;
* IT security (logical and physical),
* reviews of operational systems,
* reviews of IT processes and practices,
* post-implementation reviews of IT developments,
* consultancy to user management during IT developments,
* fraud investigations,
* developing fraud detection routines using SAS.
James planned and conducted reviews in these areas with minimal supervision. This role gave James valuable insights into the full life cycle of IT developments, the difficulties of managing IT projects, the management of a large IT installation and how IT can support the business. It also provided useful technical knowledge of security software and IBM operating systems and improved James' consultancy and report writing skills.
Programmer, Analyst Programmer & IS Analyst

General Accident

(Insurance industry)

January 1983 — December 1987 (5 years )

James worked on a variety of projects, mainly using Cobol, SAS, Easytrieve Plus, all on IBM mainframes, running MVS & VM.
James worked initially on the support of a Cobol project control application. He then carried out the successful development and implementation of a replacement on-line project control system through the full development life cycle, using VM/CMS execs and SAS.
He also evaluated software products for use in MI systems, specifically SAS and Easytrieve Plus.
Trainee

ADM Ltd

(Information Technology and Services industry)

July 1982 — December 1982 (6 months)

James undertook a 5 month government training course in computer programming with ADM in Glasgow. This entailed two periods of work experience with General Accident in Perth, who offered him a permanent job at the end of the course.
Assistant Investment Accountant

Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Society

(Insurance industry)

March 1981 — July 1982 (1 year 5 months)

James managed the foreign currency bank accounts, ensuring that interest earnings were maximised, that the right money was available in the right accounts to settle deals, and that accurate records were kept.
Student Chartered Accountant

Deloitte

(Privately Held; 10,001 or more employees; Accounting industry)

September 1980 — March 1981 (7 months)

James left Deloittes when he realised that he had made the wrong choice of career.

James Christie’s Education

University of Abertay Dundee

MSc , IT , 2005 — 2007
University of Stirling

Postgraduate Certificate , Accountancy , 1979 — 1980
Lancaster University

BA , Economics and Financial Control , 1975 — 1978
Tadcaster Grammar School, North Yorkshire

1970 — 1975
Wallington County Grammar School, Surrey

1968 — 1970

Additional Information

James Christie’s Websites:

My Company

James Christie’s Groups:

Usability Professionals' Association International (UPA-I)
The Greater IBM Connection: IBM's alumni program for past and present IBM employees
Software Testing - ISTQB/ISEB
Software Testing Club - the online software testing community
Friends of Finland
Global Testing Professional (1000 Plus now)
European Test Consultants
UX Professionals
ISACA Professionals
Friends of Spain / Amigos de España
IBM co/ex workers independent group
Software Testing & Quality Assurance
Test strategy and test management
Senior Testing Professionals
User Experience
BCS Chartered IT Professional
TMap Professionals
Financial Crime Risk, Fraud and Security
Agile Testing
QAGuild Network
IT Professionals in Scotland
Abertay University INTERNATIONAL ALUMNI NETWORK
Test Management Forum
ScotlandIS
Risk, Regulation & Reporting
EuroSTAR - Europe's Leading Software Testing Event
AgileScotland
BCS IRMA