The Expert Test Manager: Guide to the ISTQB Expert Level Certification

With over thirty years of software and systems engineering experience, Rex Black is President of RBCS (www.rbcs-us.com), a leader in software, hardware, and systems testing. For almost twenty-five years, RBCS has delivered training, consulting, and expert services for software, hardware, and systems testing and quality. Employing the industry’s most experienced and recognized consultants, RBCS builds and improves testing groups and provides testing experts for hundreds of clients worldwide. Ranging from Fortune 20 companies to start-ups, RBCS clients save time and money through higher quality, reduced risk of production failures, improved product development, improved reputation, and more. 

Rex has authored over a dozen training courses, many of them ISTQB accredited.  These materials have been used to train tens of thousands of people internationally, both directly through RBCS on-site, virtual, public, and e-learning courses as well as through a worldwide network of licensed training partners in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australasia, East Asia and Southern Asia. In addition to for-profit training courses, Rex has presented an hour-long, monthly, free webinar for over seven years; this webinar series has reached over 40,000 registrants. Rex has written over fifty articles, presented hundreds of papers, workshops, webinars, and seminars, and given over a hundred keynotes and other speeches at conferences and events around the world.

Rex is the past President of the International Software Testing Qualifications Board and of the American Software Testing Qualifications Board. He remains active in the ISTQB and the ASTQB. He leads the Agile Working Group, is the coordinator for the Advanced Test Manager and Expert Test Manager syllabus teams, and participates as an author and reviewer in a number of other syllabus teams as well. He holds a BS degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Master’s Certificate in Software Testing from Villanova University.
Rex is the most prolific author practicing in the field of software testing today.  His popular first book, Managing the Testing Process, has sold over 100,000 copies around the world, including Japanese, Chinese, and Indian releases, and is now in its third edition. His other books on testing, Agile Testing Foundations, Advanced Software Testing: Volumes I, II, and III, Critical Testing Processes, Foundations of Software Testing, Pragmatic Software Testing, Fundamentos de Pruebas de Software, Testing Metrics, Improving the Testing Process, Improving the Software Process, and The Expert Test Manager have also sold tens of thousands of copies, including Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indian, and Russian editions.

You can find Rex on Twitter (@RBCS), on Facebook (@TestingImprovedbyRBCS), on LinkedIn (rex-black), and on YouTube (RBCSINC).

Jim Rommens (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimrommens) is a seasoned, accomplished project manager, having worked at major companies in industries such as telecommunications, energy, medical systems and health care.  Beginning his career in PC support and software development, Jim moved to management positions, including those of project manager as well as supporting project managers in various PMOs (project management offices).  He has assumed other roles, such as business analyst and tester, making him well-versed in the various roles of the SDLC (software development life cycle).     

Jim has a truly eclectic background with many varied interests, including project management, quality management and customer service, teaching and training, writing and editing, and career development and mentoring others. 

For most of his adult life, Jim has maintained a strong interest in continuing education and possesses two graduate degrees (MS in Computer Science and MA in Theological Studies), an undergraduate business degree in market research and industrial and organizational psychology, and has achieved further certification and training as a Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL), Certified Tester Foundation Level – Agile Tester Extension (CTFL – Agile Test Extension), and Test Manager – Advanced Level.  Jim’s interests have also extended to quality and efficiency areas with a Lean Sigma Technician certification and public speaking as a Dale Carnegie graduate. 

Jim incorporates key learnings and experiences from these various fields in his teaching classes as an adjunct instructor from the graduate level to the associates level for both online and classroom-led courses in the areas of project management, quality, and computer systems. 

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px 'Book Antiqua'} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 18.0px} span.s1 {text-decoration: underline ; color: #4787ff}

Jim’s prime motivators in life, extending beyond career and job, follow the acronym APV – the ability to do a job well, the passion to do high-quality work, and the value inherent in his work for others.  This work for others transcends the business world into various service and volunteer opportunities, including previously held church roles such as that of deacon; serving at a nursing home through one-on-one visits, playing group games and delivering church sermons; tutoring inner-city students, and packing and delivering meals for the elderly and shut-ins.

Leo van der Aalst holds almost 30 years of IT experience. After having gone through the classic path (from programmer to project manager) Leo has specialized since 1990 in the test field, in which he held positions such as test manager, test consultant and line manager of a test organization.

His knowledge and experience in the project- and test management field have been used and developed further during a number of international projects and consultancy trajectories (a.o. in USA, Germany, Denmark, Austria and in the Netherlands).

He was the Development Lead of the ISTQB Foundation and Advanced Agile-Tester Syllabi and professor Software Quality at Fontys University (Eindhoven, The Netherlands). Besides all this Leo is an Agile coach at Sogeti Netherlands and is co-author of the TMap NEXT, TMap NEXT BDTM and TMap NEXT in scrum books. 

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Verdana; color: #182539} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Verdana; color: #182539; min-height: 12.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Verdana} p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Verdana; min-height: 12.0px} span.s1 {color: #000000} span.s2 {color: #182539}

Finally, Leo is a much sought-after teacher of test training, a regular speaker on national- and international conferences, and he is the author of several articles.