About Testing Mentor

I'm Bj Rollison, and I am a Test Architect in the Engineering Excellence group at Microsoft. Prior to Microsoft I worked for a small OEM company in Japan building custom computer solutions for small and medium sized businesses. I have been at Microsoft since 1994, and my previous roles in the company included a stint as a test lead on the setup team for international versions of Windows 95, test manager in the Internet Client Division where I managed several teams shipping IE 4.0, Outlook Express, Outlook 98, Comic Chat, and managed IE 3.0 sustained engineering efforts. My team also pioneered work on pseudo-localization technologies. From 1999 until 2002 I was the Director of Test Training in Microsoft's Technical Education group.

In 2002 Microsoft began changing its views and values towards the role and responsibilities of the software testing professional within the company, and I accepted a position to drive engineering practices across Microsoft's business divisions, guide test leaders in strategic initiatives, and directly impact individual testers throughout the company. Currently, my primary role is designing and developing curriculum to improve technical skills and promote professional knowledge of software testing, and teaching intensive hands-on courses in systematic testing techniques and methods, and procedural and object oriented test automation.

I also teach software testing and test automation courses at the University of Washington's Educational Outreach Program, and I am a member of the advisory board for software testing programs for the:

I have the best career in the world! I don't teach testing: I simply help really bright and talented testers unleash their full potential!

I decided to put this site together to centralize some of my papers, and as a way to provide some resources I developed such as job aids and testing tools to professional testers around the world. 

Personal Stuff...

I am a water-baby; if there is an activity that has anything to do with water in any form then I probably do it! I am an avid sailor and cruise Puget Sound much of the year in S/V Discovery at 42' Cooper pilothouse sloop.

I was the first foreign member of the Japanese boardsailing association and raced windsurfers for the Moon Beach fleet on Okinawa, Japan where I lived for 13 years.

I am also a PADI certified Master Scuba Diver Trainer and taught scuba diving for more than 20 years in the Philippines, Japan, and the United States. I spent about a year sailing around the Ryukyu Islands on a San Juan 24, and working as an underwater tour guide in the Kerama Islands for Japanese tourists.

I also enjoy snow skiing in the winter (both downhill and cross-country.  And, I am also an avid fly-fisherman (and yes, I tie my own flies).

When I am not doing any of the above I am a lifetime member of the Pacific International Trapshooting Association (PITA) and shoot competition trap, I have been known to play an occasional round of golf, and also enjoy tennis and racketball for court sports.

Everything else...well...is personal.