SUZANNE ROBERTSON is a teacher and consultant specializing in modeling
techniques for software development. She has coauthored courses on systems analysis,
software design for both procedural and object-oriented systems, quality assessment,
and problem solving. Suzanne is currently developing techniques for reusing requirements
specifications.
In 1966, Suzanne started her data processing career working
on a missile flight simulation system for the Australian government. She moved
from scientific work to the commercial field, where she worked on the design and
implementation of an on-line investment system. Her team developed a system that
integrated invoicing, inventory control, creditors and general ledger software.
A network of Honeywell computers, the largest in Australia, and a variety of intelligent
terminals, linked over 100 businesses in four states.
Since 1978, Suzanne
has consulted, done research, and taught in Europe, Australia, the Far East, and
the United States. She specializes in helping companies to adapt modern software
development techniques to fit specific projects. Her seminars and papers are well
respected as sources of new software development ideas.
Suzanne and her
husband, James, were the first consultants
for Yourdon Europe. Their impact was such that after a short time, they were invited
to New York to manage Yourdon's seminar division.
In 1983, in partnership
with Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister, Steve McMenamin, and John Palmer, Suzanne
and James founded the Atlantic Systems
Guild. The guild is a New York and London based think-tank, researching system
development techniques. Guild principals have written numerous books and seminars
that are among the most successful in software development history.
Suzanne
and James Robertson are coauthors of Complete Systems
Analysis: The Workbook, the Textbook, the Answers (Dorset House, 1994), a
two-volume text and case study that teaches the craft of systems analysis.
Suzanne
studied Information Processing at the New South Wales Institute of Technology,
she is a member of the IEEE, the ACS, and is on the committee of the British Computer
Society's Reuse Group. In her limited spare time, Suzanne divides her time between
cooking, skiing and playing her flute.
Other recent activities:
Suzanne
is working on research into reuse of requirements. The products of this research
will be a requirements filter for assessing requirements quality and a book of
requirements patterns (especially patterns for specifying business processes).
Recent
work in Poland has resulted in a process for training internal consultants. The
process makes use of project clinics and teaches technology transfer skills. The
process, implemented in a large company over two years, has produced an effective
team of fourteen technical consultants.
Suzanne and James's new requirements
seminar, Mastering The Requirements Process, ran for the first time in
London in March 1996. The seminar brings together five years of research work
and presents a practical process for eliciting and specifying requirements.
Bibliography:
Suzanne
Robertson
