Merlin Dorfman, PhD, is a Technical Consultant in the Space Systems Product Center, Lockhead Martin Missiles and Space Company, Sunnyvale, Calif. He specializes in systems engineering for software-intensive systems (requirements analysis, top-level architecture, and performance evaluation), in software process improvement, and in algorithm development for data processing systems. He has performed concept exploration, system implementation, and operations and maintenance of data systems and has worked on proposal teams and company-funded technology projects as well as on development contracts. He was in charge of the development of the Automated Requirements Traceability System (ARTS). He was the first chairman of space Systems Division's Software Engineering Process Group. He represented the Lockhead Corporation on the Embedded Computer Committee of the Aerospace Industries Association, and was Vice-Chairman of the Committee.
Dorfman wrote and taught a four-day course, "Software Requirements and Design Specifications," for Learning Tree International of Los Angeles, Calif. He co-teaches a two-week course in Software Project Management for the Center for Systems Management of Cupertino, Calif. He has been a guest lecturer on software systems engineering at the Defense Systems Management College. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a member of its System Engineering Technical Committee, past chairman of the Software Systems Technical Committee, and past Chairman of the AIAA San Francisco Section, and is currently Assistant Director of Region 6 (West Coast). He is an affiliate member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society.
He has a BS and MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD from Stanford University, all in Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the states of California and Colorado and is a member of the Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Gamma Tau honorary societies.
He is co-editor of two IEEE Tutorial volumes, Systems and Software Requirements Engineering and Standards, Guidelines, and Examples for System and Software Requirements Engineering, and co-editor of a volume, Aerospace Software Engineering in the AIAA "Progress in Aeronautics and Astronautics"

Richard H. Thayer, PhD, is a Professor of Computer Science at California State University, Sacramento, California, United States of America. He travels widely where he consults and lectures on software requirements analysis, software engineering, project management, software engineering standards, and software quality assurance. He is a Visiting Researcher at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. As an expert in software project management and requirements engineering, he is a consultant to many companies and government agencies.
Prior to this, he served over 20 years in the U.S. Air Force as a senior officer in a variety of positions associated with engineering, computer programming, research, teaching, and management in computer science and data processing. His numerous positions include six years as a supervisor and technical leader of scientific programming groups, four years directing the U.S. Air Force R&D program in computer science, and six years of managing large data processing organizations.
Thayer is a Senior Member of the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Software Engineering Standards Subcommittee. He is Chairperson for the Working Group for Standard for a Concept of Operations (ConOps) document and past chairperson for the Working Group for a Standard for a Software Project Management Plans. He is a Distinguished Visitor for the IEEE Computer Society.
He is also an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) where he served on the AIAA Technical Committee on Computer Systems, and he is a member of the Association for Computer Machinery (ACM). He is also a registered professional engineer.
He has a BSEE and an MS degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana (1962) and a PhD from the University of California at Santa Barbara (1979) all in Electrical Engineering.
He has edited and/or co-edited numerous tutorials for the IEEE Computer Society Press: Software Engineering Project Management (1988), System and Software Requirement Engineering (1990), and Software Engineering—A European Prospective (1992). He is the author of over 40 technical papers and reports on software project management, software engineering, and software engineering standards and is an invited speaker at many national and international software engineering conferences and workshops.