James Marcus Bach is an American

software tester Software testing is the act of examining the artifacts and the behavior of the software under test by validation and verification. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to apprecia ...

, author, trainer, and consultant.

Career

In his autobiography, Bach wrote that he worked as a software testing manager for

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

and

Borland Borland Software Corporation was a computer technology company founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad and Philippe Kahn. Its main business was the development and sale of software development and software deployment product ...

after dropping out of high school. He also programmed

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

ports of various titles for

Spinnaker Software Spinnaker Software was a software company founded in 1982John Case. ''Digital Future'', William Morrow : New York, N.Y. 1985. p. 122. known primarily for its line of non-curriculum based educational software, which was a major seller during the ...

. Since 1999, he has worked as independent consultant based in

Eastsound, Washington Eastsound (not to be confused with East Sound, which is the body of water adjoining Eastsound) is an unincorporated community on Orcas Island in San Juan County, Washington, United States. Eastsound is the largest population center on Orcas Isla ...

. As a witness in the ''

United States v. Microsoft Corp. ''United States v. Microsoft Corporation'', 253 F.3d 34 (D.C. Cir. 2001), was a landmark American antitrust law case at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The U.S. government accused Microsoft of illegally ...

'' antitrust case, Bach testified that Microsoft could indeed unbundle

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...

from

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. Bach is a proponent of

exploratory testing Exploratory testing is an approach to software testing that is concisely described as simultaneous learning, test design and test execution. Cem Kaner, who coined the term in 1984, defines exploratory testing as "a style of software testing that em ...

and the context-driven school of software testing and is credited with developing

session-based testing Session-based testing is a software test method that aims to combine accountability and exploratory testing to provide rapid defect discovery, creative on-the-fly test design, management control and metrics reporting. The method can also be used in ...

. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the

Association for Software Testing The Association for Software Testing, commonly referred to as the AST, is dedicated to advancing the understanding of the science and practice of software testing according tcontext-driven principles AST's membership consists of scholars, students ...

. ''Lessons Learned in Software Testing'', a book he co-authored, has been cited over 130 times according to Google Scholar, and several of his articles have been cited dozens of times including his work on heuristics for testing and on the

Capability Maturity Model The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a development model created in 1986 after a study of data collected from organizations that contracted with the U.S. Department of Defense, who funded the research. The term "maturity" relates to the degree of ...

. He has written numerous articles for ''Computer''. He is an advisor to the

Lifeboat Foundation The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit organization in Reno, Nevada, dedicated to the prevention of global catastrophic risk. Technology journalist Ashlee Vance describes Lifeboat as "a nonprofit that seeks to protect people from some seriously c ...

as a computing expert. They credit him with developing the General Functionality and Stability Test Procedure for Microsoft, part of the ''Designed for Windows'' program.

Personal life

Bach is the son of the author

Richard Bach Richard David Bach (born June 23, 1936) is an American writer. He has written numerous works of fiction and also non-fiction flight-related titles. His works include ''Jonathan Livingston Seagull'' (1970) and '' Illusions: The Adventures of a R ...

, and is the brother of Jonathan Bach, who is also a renowned software tester.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bach, James Marcus Software testing people Writers from Washington (state) Living people Year of birth missing (living people)