Ian F. Sommerville, (born 23 February 1951) is a British academic. He is the author of a popular student textbook on software engineering, as well as a number of other books and papers. He worked as a professor of software engineering at the University of St Andrews in Scotland until 2014 and is a prominent researcher in the field of

systems engineering Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their enterprise life cycle, life cycles. At its core, systems engineering util ...

, system dependability and

social informatics Social informatics is the study of information and communication tools in cultural or institutional contexts. Another definition is the interdisciplinary study of the design, uses and consequences of information technologies that takes into accoun ...

, being an early advocate of an interdisciplinary approach to system dependability.

Education and personal life

Ian Sommerville was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1951. He studied Physics at Strathclyde University and Computer Science at the University of St Andrews. He is married and has two daughters. As an amateur gourmet, he has written a number of restaurant reviews.

Academic career

Ian Sommerville was a lecturer in Computer Science at

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University ( gd, Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequently granted univ ...

in Edinburgh, Scotland from 1975 to 1978 and at Strathclyde University, Glasgow from 1978–86. From 1986 to 2006, he was Professor of Software Engineering in the Computing Department at the University of Lancaster, and in April 2006 he joined the School of Computer Science at St Andrews University, where he taught courses in advanced software engineering and critical

. He retired in January 2014 and since continues to do software-related things that he finds interesting. Ian Sommerville's research work, partly funded by the EPSRChttp://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewPerson.aspx?PersonId=14819 Research grant funding awarded to Ian Sommerville by the EPSRC has included systems

requirements engineering Requirements engineering (RE) is the process of defining, documenting, and maintaining requirements in the engineering design process. It is a common role in systems engineering and software engineering. The first use of the term ''requirement ...

and system evolution. He defined the process of

Construction by configuration Construction by Configuration (CbC)Sommerville Ian (2008)Construction by Configuration: Challenges for Software Engineering. Research and Practice.St Andrews, Scotland. is a process defined by Ian Sommerville in 2008 for the adoption of a Commerc ...

(CbC). A major focus has been system dependability, including the use of

social analysis Social theories are analytical frameworks, or paradigms, that are used to study and interpret social phenomena.Seidman, S., 2016. Contested knowledge: Social theory today. John Wiley & Sons. A tool used by social scientists, social theories rela ...

techniques such as

ethnography Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

to better understand how people and computers deliver dependability. He was a partner in the DIRC (Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in Dependability) consortium,Listing as member of DIRC project
/ref> which focused on dependable systems design and is now (2006) working on the related INDEED (Interdisciplinary Design and Evaluation of Dependability) project. He has also been a member of the board of advisors to the IEEE SWEBOK project. He has worked on a number of European projects involving collaboration between academia and commercial enterprises, such as the

ESPRIT Esprit or L'Esprit may refer to: * the French for Spirit; as a loanword: ** Enthusiasm, intense interest or motivation ** Morale, motivation and readiness ** Geist "mind/spirit; intellect" * Esprit (name), a given name and surname * ''Esprit'' (m ...

project REAIMS (Requirements Engineering adaptation and improvement for safety and dependability).

Public activities

In 2006, Ian Sommerville was one of 23 academics in the computer field who wrote open letters calling for an independent audit of the British National Health Service's proposed Programme for IT (NPfIT) and expressing concern about the £12.4 billion programme.

Publications

Most widely read of Sommerville's publications is probably his student text book "''Software Engineering''", currently in its 10th edition along with other textbooks Sommerville has also authored or co-authored numerous peer reviewed articles, papers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sommerville, Ian 1951 births Academics of Heriot-Watt University Academics of Lancaster University Academics of the University of St Andrews Academics of the University of Strathclyde Alumni of the University of St Andrews Alumni of the University of Strathclyde British computer scientists Scottish computer scientists Living people Engineers from Glasgow Software engineering researchers Computer science educators Engineering writers British science writers