John Donaldson

SFC Software Forensics Centre

Reading Room

John Donaldson

John Donaldson was part of the SFC team at Middlesex University until his death in March 2005. John also worked privately as a consultant in the field of IT systems. Having graduated with an honours degree in Chemistry from Edinburgh University, he spent 17 years with the UK’s largest brewing company, Scottish & Newcastle plc, where he was concerned with computer applications ranging from production-oriented control systems through to developing and maintaining large systems including a 35,000-employee payroll/personnel system.

After he left industry in 1990, he took an MSc in Software Technology at the University of Stirling. He stayed on in Stirling to become a Research Fellow in the Department of Computing Science, working on the formal specification of Quality of Service (QoS) in telecommunications systems, as part of the EU funded RACE-II project, TOPIC. Since then worked on quality aspects of software and multimedia systems, including several years from 1996, at City University, London, working on the EU ESPRIT project 'Multispace' (EP23066). The nature of his work meant that he worked extensively with large software and multimedia development companies throughout Europe. He also built up strong links with Software Engineering specialists in Europe, the USA and in the Far East.

In addition to his work on systems failures with the SFC in Middlesex University, John was researching the subject of software-based systems failures with a view to submitting a PhD thesis within the foreseeable future. He had completed consultancy work for Highware S.A. in Paris. This work was part of the EU 'Coronet' project (IST-1999-111634) which has produced a software Knowledge Management and Training tool, specifically created for use by software engineers.