Consultant, lecturer, author, project leader

James Robertson is a consultant, lecturer, author, project leader whose area of concern is the requirements for software, and the contribution that good requirements, and innovation, make to successful projects. James is co-author of Mastering the Requirements Process—second edition , a book that sets out his ideas on the requirements process. This book introduced the systems world to the Volere Requirements Specification Template and the Volere Process; an estimated 30,000 users worldwide have since downloaded the template (available on this site). The book has achieved market success due in large to its clarity and innovative explanations of the requirements process.

James’ career is broad, both in a geographical sense and the areas and systems that he has worked with. It is fair to say that James has worked on almost every type of commercial IT project. From a start as a programmer in a software development house in Sydney, to consulting in New York and London, he has earned his experience at the sharp end of both project and research work.

In 1983, James, along with Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister, Steve McMenamin and John Palmer and Suzanne Robertson (with the later addition of Peter Hruschka) founded the Atlantic Systems Guild. This organisation has achieved a level of respect within the IT industry far beyond its size, having published over 20 books, numerous seminars and papers. Pooling their experience with many diverse projects the guild members have published Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behaviour, which won the Jolt Productivity Award for best general book.

James studied architecture at the University of New South Wales, and Information Processing at the New South Wales University of Technology. When he is not researching and developing software, James can be found on the skiing or photographing nature in the French Alps.