About

Hi! I’m Alex, one of the managing directors at Bredex GmbH in Braunschweig, Germany. After falling into IT from a linguistics degree, I worked in various roles as a tester, product owner and consultant before becoming a team lead and then a CEO in 2020. I now have 7 years of managing experience, and 4 years of managing managers. People, agility, leadership and quality are topics I’m very passionate about, and I love to share my experiences in talks, keynotes and customer workshops of bringing my style to the work we do.

Since 2016 I’m an international keynote speaker. In 2018 I won the award “Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Person”. Since January 2020 I am a CEO and co-owner of BREDEX GmbH in Germany.

Where I come from

My background is in languages and linguistics, but I fell happily into IT and software testing in 2005 when I applied for a summer job translating a software handbook. Since everything about software was new to me, I had a lot to learn – and I loved learning it. I realised pretty quickly that there is a place for people from a non-technical background in this technical world. I now consider myself to be very technical; nevertheless I see my core skills of empathy, communication, listening and ‘translating’ as my most useful strengths in my roles.

Where I’ve been

From starting out writing that handbook (as it turned out, there was no translation source), I moved naturally into software testing since I needed to find out whether the features I was documenting worked as discussed, or at all. In addition, the product I was documenting was/is an automated testing tool, so I started learning about software testing processes and methods very quickly.

Armed with my discoveries, I soon started contributing to the discussions about new features. Eventually, I became the product owner and a consultant for the tool before becoming the head of the quality department and then also a CEO at the company. I count myself lucky to have witnessed and participated in the growth of a software product over ten years – it’s a great source of experience and constant source of inspiration and learning opportunities. I’ve expanded on my experience by working as a consultant on customer projects and by talking with other testers, developers and product owners on my travels.

Now I spend my days working with customers in quality or agile workshops, coaching testers and developers, planning strategic activities for the company and talking about our work at conferences.

Experience

University

  • 2001 – 2005: University of York: French and German (Language and Linguistics), BA (Hons). Grade received: First Class Degree
  • 2006 – 2007: University of York: Phonetics and Phonology. MA. Grade received: Distinction

Work

I work at a company in Braunschweig, Germany called BREDEX GmbH. We’re a software development and consulting company.

  • January 2020 – ongoing: CEO and Co-Owner, BREDEX GmbH
  • November 2016 – ongoing: Head of Software Quality and Test Consulting, BREDEX GmbH
  • June 2014 – November 2016: Head of Test Consulting, BREDEX GmbH
  • August 2009 – January 2017: Product Owner, BREDEX GmbH
  • January 2010 – June 2014: Test Consultant, BREDEX GmbH
  • October 2007 – January 2010: Software Tester, BREDEX GmbH
  • October 2007 – June 2014: Customer communication, marketing and event organisation, BREDEX GmbH
  • August 2005- October 2006: Technical documentation and marketing, BREDEX GmbH

Organisations

  • Member of the Steering Committee of the ASQF 2024
  • Winner of the 2018 Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Person award, decided by international community vote and organised for the Agile Testing Days by Trendig.
  • April 2015 – 2018: Mentor with the Tech Voices program
  • August 2014 – 2020: Co-organiser of the ASQF regional software-testing meetup in Niedersachsen
  • 2011 –  2018 : Eclipse Committer, co-project lead since 2015

Conference involvement

One of the great things about my job is that I can be involved in conferences about testing, agile and development:

  • Open Space Moderator, Agile Testing Days (Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, USA) 2014 – 2023
  • Programm Committee member for Inside Agile Conference, May 2022
  • Moderator at the TACON Test Automation Conference
  • Program Committee member for Eclipse Con 2020, 2021, 2022
  • Live Blogger for Testbash Germany 2018 and 2019
  • Organiser Committee Member, European Testing Conference 2020
  • Organiser of the Niedersachsen Testing Day 2016 and 2018
  • Reviewer for Testbash Germany 2018
  • Track Reviewer for XP2018
  • Program Chair for Romanian Testing Conference 2018
  • Program Chair and organizer for the Project Quality Day at Eclipse Con Europe in 2014-2019
  • Program Committee member for Eurostar 2017
  • Organiser of the “Women in Testing” Summit at Eurostar 2017
  • Reviewer, Agile in the City 2018, London
  • Program Committee member for Eclipse Converge 2017
  • Track Chair, Eurostar 2016
  • Member of a group to improve diversity for Eclipse Con Europe 2016
  • Member of the Program Committee for the Heise Developer World at the CeBIT, 2016
  • Advisor for the European Test Conference 2016
  • Track Chair, Eurostar 2014
  • Organiser of the Eclipse Testing Days from 2010 – 2013

Training, coaching and workshops

  • Strategic quality and agile consulting for customers
  • Customised workshops and keynotes for specific customer groups
  • Agile leadership training and coaching
  • Master Trainer for “Holistic Testing: Strategies for Agile Teams”
  • Agile coach and trainer
  • Exploratory testing workshops
  • “Time to lead: Communication and enablement for testers in agile teams” trainer
  • ASQF Certified Professional for IoT Quality Engineering Trainer
  • ISTQB Foundation Level Trainer
  • CMAP Mobile Application Professional Trainer
  • Coach for new speakers
  • Mentor and coach for new testers
  • UI test automation practices workshops
  • Workshops on distributed development
  • Jubula tool trainer

Courses and certificates

  • IT Contract Law for non-Lawyers – March 2023
  • Holistic Testing: Strategies for Agile Teams – Agile Testing Fellowship, April 2018
  • ASQF Certified Professional for IoT Quality Engineering, February 2018
  • Negotiation and communication seminar, August 2017
  • Team management seminar, January 2016
  • ISTQB Certified Test Manager, February 2015
  • ISQI CMAP certification, September 2014
  • Certified Scrum Product Owner, 2014
  • Basic Java Course
  • Management and communication seminar, November 2013
  • Communication seminar, 2013
  • Writing course at the Akademie für Publistik
  • ISTQB Foundation Level, August 2011

Languages

  • English (native language)
  • German (fluent)
  • French (very good)
  • Hungarian (beginner)

Personal

  • I moved from England to Germany in 2005 and became a German citizen in 2014.
  • I’ve played violin since I was nine and now play in a Celtic folk band called Naván. I also sing and play guitar.
  • I keep up with my French language skills by reading books.
  • I’ve been (lacto-ovo) vegetarian since I was sixteen.
  • I’ve been described as a force of nature by multiple people. I take it as a high compliment.
  • I’m highly extroverted. You’ll usually find me in the middle of the crowd.
  • I enjoy baking – and feeding the results to other people.
  • I have a black belt in karate, but haven’t trained in years
  • I enjoy all kinds of sport – pilates, yoga, aerial gymnastics, running, climbing, swimming, mud races, zumba and weights – anything that gets me moving and keeps me busy
  • My favourite animals are ducks and squirrels.
  • I’m terrified of velociraptors.

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