Boris Beizer

Dr Boris Beizer is the gold standard as it applies to software testing methodologies. He wrote several of the most prominent books in the field, serves on the advisory boards of most of the major conferences, and referees papers in most of the important journals.

Black Box Testing, Software Testing Techniques, and Software System Testing and Quality Assurance are all highly recommended as the minimum set of books on any software tester's bookshelf (ISBN 0471120944 , ISBN 0442206720 , and ISBN 1850328218 , respectively).

-- HowardFear

Beizer's oft-referenced "Bug Taxonomy" is contained in Software Testing Techniques. Although the taxonomy is copyrighted, you can occasionally find it online. See SourcesOfBugs. -- ElizabethWiethoff

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Boris Beizer was a big name in the eighties. These days, he's been pretty much forgotten. His work has little relevance to modern software development. Boris is famous for pushing code coverage as a big deal and dismissing the idea of exploratory and risk-based testing. He once told me, in 1993, that Microsoft would be out of business "within 5 years" because it was using the kind of testing practices I recommend. -- JamesBach

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I think given that 5 years on from 1993 was time of Windows98/IE5 that he was right on many levels - MS have always struggled to maintain any consistent quality of their software. The fact Microsoft succeeded is not down to quality software, they have excellent business and marketing skills. -- jaffamonkey

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Regardless of what you think about him, Boris probably has written more books on software testing than any one else.

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Anyone know where Boris is? I tried sending him email and got:

 <bbeizer@sprintmail.com>:
 207.217.125.22 does not like recipient.
 Remote host said: 550 bbeizer@sprintmail.com...User unknown
 Giving up on 207.217.125.22.

I wanted to see if he was going to STARWest this year. Oh well. Anyone that knows his email address, please send me an email at fcohen@pushtotest.com.

Thanks.

-- Frank http://www.pushtotest.com

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Boris is the leading authority on software test. I've worked in the field for 19 years and have never seen anyone on the book/lecture circuit who understood the field as well as he did. All of his books are still relevant and his techniques are sound. If you want to learn how to do good tests, keep away from fads like 'Cleanroom' and just read his books. He is a very good speaker and not to be missed if you ever get the opportunity.

Last I heard he was retired in Pennsylvania and spent a lot of his free time sailing.

-- Banner

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