brian warboys (born 30 april 1942), retired in september 2007. he was professor of software engineering at the university of manchester from 1985 until he retired. he was subsequently appointed as professor emeritus and continues to undertake research. before joining the university he had worked for icl. at the time the uk's largest computer manufacturer. during the 1970s he had been the chief designer of icl's vme operating system. he is also the author of several non-fiction books.