Dr John Rooksby

I am a research fellow in the School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews, working on the LSCITS (Large Scale Complex IT Systems) project. I am a member of the Systems Engineering Group, working closely with Gordon Baxter and others, under the guidance of Ian Sommerville. My PhD is from The University of Manchester. I have previously held research positions at Lancaster University and Salford University. I grew up in Rutland.

General interests: Software Engineering, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Ethnography, Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis.

My research is in the area of software engineering. I specialise in "Socio-Technical Systems Engineering", arguing that a system is best thought of as constituted by people and practices as well as technologies. I am interested in how people work with technology, and in how new technologies might be designed to better support work or enable new forms of work. I often conduct ethnographic fieldwork to investigate work in different settings (so much of my analyses are based upon notes and recordings of people doing work, and upon things like interviews, focus groups, and any documents I am given access to). The value of my research is mainly in highlighting unknown, overlooked or misunderstood aspects of work. This is important as systems built upon the wrong assumptions can be annoying, costly, and even dangerous. Sometimes I do this work to inform a specific development project, and sometimes in order to produce generalisations. I have looked at work in a number of domains; in particular I have done extensive research into healthcare, and into software development.

This is a photo of (most of) the LSCITS researchers. Thats me in the middle. This picture was taken by Ilango Sriram in January 09: