Paul Gerrard

Current

• Director at Aqastra Limited
• Principal at Gerrard Consulting
• Technical Director at Systeme Evolutif Limited

see less...

Past

• Test Assurance Manager (Consultant) at BP Oil
• Analys/programmer/project manager at Mercury Communications

Education

• Imperial College, London University
• University of Oxford

Recommended

6 people have recommended Paul

Connections

307 connections

Industry

Information Technology and Services

Websites

• My Company
• My Blog
• Online training courses

Paul Gerrard’s Summary

Acknowledged author, trainer and consultant in project assurance, software development and test strategy, process, techniques and tools in legacy and new technologies. Webmaster for several websites, developer and system administrator for Gerrard ISP. Popular keynote speaker on the project management, assurance, testing and QA conference circuit.

Paul Gerrard’s Specialties:

Project management, project intelligence, technical consultancy, problem solving, software development, internet service provision, test strategy, test management, test automation, testing training, system administration, influencing, risk management.

Paul Gerrard’s Experience

• Director

  Aqastra Limited

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Professional Training & Coaching industry)

  January 2008 — Present (5 months)

  Aqastra is owned by Paul Gerrard and Susan Windsor who have a shared vision of the testing profession and are dedicated to testing excellence. They believe that testing can be taught whereas the required business knowledge can only be accumulated over time. They have a desire to improve the effectiveness of testing and have extensive experience with the testing industry. This experience has been packaged into a comprehensive training programme aimed at addressing the industry wide shortage of testing professionals.
  
  The Aqastra Re-Training programme provides assessment, retraining and career advancement services to enthusiastic professional people keen to make a difference in software quality. Traditional textbook training concentrates on teaching people to attain certification - to pass an exam. Aqastra provides this necessary certification, but our training majors on providing practical skills and competencies to facilitate rapid effectiveness in the software testing role.

• Principal

  Gerrard Consulting

  (Public Company; 1-10 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  September 2006 — Present (1 year 9 months)

  Acknowledged author, trainer and consultant in project assurance, software development and test strategy, process, techniques and tools in legacy and new technologies. Webmaster for several websites, developer and system administrator for Gerrard ISP. Popular keynote speaker on the project management, assurance, testing and QA conference circuit.

• Technical Director

  Systeme Evolutif Limited

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  1992 — Present (16 years)

  Wrote first Client/Server Testing training course available in UK.
  
  Wrote first Y2K Testing training course in UK. Licensed to providers in US, Eire, South Africa.
  
  Wrote first Internet/Web testing training course in UK.
  
  Wrote first Risk-Based Testing training course in UK.
  
  Lead Author of book, “Risk-Based E-Business Testing” with Neil Thompson.
  
  Devised the concept of “Project Intelligence” as a basis for risk and goal-based testing and communication of project progress to stakeholders.
  
  Wrote the ISEB Accredited Foundation Course in Software Testing available as a classroom and self-study course.
  
  Consultant on major software-related initiatives to Barclays Bank, IBM, NATS, European Community, Dutch Home Office, Walt Disney Company, Camelot PLC, BAT, L&G.
  
  Currently consultant to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, FireControl and E-Fire projects.

• Test Assurance Manager (Consultant)

  BP Oil

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Oil & Energy industry)

  October 2006 — July 2007 (10 months)

• Analys/programmer/project manager

  Mercury Communications

  (Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  1984 — 1991 (7 years)

  Developer, team leader and project manager of the Customer Support Systems group in the IS Department. Designed and developed the Customer Order Monitoring System, Survey Monitoring System, Network Locations Register, Customer Support System, Front-Office System, Customer Site Documentation System.
  
  Responsible for a small team, iniating projects, requirements, design, testing, implementation and support.

Paul Gerrard’s Education

• Imperial College, London University

  MSC, DIC, Concrete Structures, October 1979 — June 1980

• University of Oxford

  MA, Engineering Science, 1976 — 1979

Additional Information

Paul Gerrard’s Websites:

• My Company
• My Blog
• Online training courses

Paul Gerrard’s Interests:

Project Intelligence, Test Methodology, Test Management, Outsourced Testing, Project Assurance, Benefits Realisation, Risk Management, Tester Assessment, Test Organisation Assessment and Improvement, Testing Maturity, Test Automation, Test Training, Exploratory Testing, Speaker, Coaching, Webmaster, Rowing, Rowing Coaching. Invited speaker at many conferences and organisations including, EuroSTAR, ICSTEST, StarEast, StarWest, AsiaSTAR, CCTA, CSG, SIGIST, TestWeek, SAST, Quality Forum, PROMS-G, DevCon, IEE, IQPC, SQM, Test Congress, Windows Enterprise, BPPM, LogicaCMG, TMFORUM, Sogeti, CapGemini, EDS, MicroFocus, Mercury, Compuware, Skandia, QBIT, ITNET, SQE, SQS, Unicom

Paul Gerrard’s Groups:

Currently Web Secretary for the British Computer Society Specialist Interest Group in Software Testing, BCS SIGIST, Formerly Co-Programme Chair and Special Projects secretary. http://www.sigist.org.uk

Founding Chair of the Information Systems Examination Board (ISEB) Software Testing Certificate Board, ISEB, http://www.bcs.org/BCS/Products/Qualifications/ISEB/Areas/SoftTest/

Member of British Standard 7825, Software Component Testing, BS7925, working party, www.testingstandards.co.uk

Test Management Forum, hosting of the event, www.uktmf.com

Member of the Institute of Analysts and Programmers, MIAP, since 1985.
Member of the American Society of Computing Machinery, ACM.
Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, IEEE
Member of the British Standards Institute, BSI, STAR Conferences, SofTest

Host of the Test Management Forum and Performance Test Forum
http://www.uktmf.com

• LinkedIn UK 1st Million Members member

Paul Gerrard’s Honors:

Winner of Best Presentation Award, EuroSTAR 1995

Winner of Best Presentation of 2003, BCS SIGIST

Paul Gerrard’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch