Ian Sommerville was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1951.He studied Physics at Strathclyde University and Computer Science at the University of St Andrews. He is married and has two daughters. As an amateur gourmet, he has written a number of restaurant reviews.

Ian Sommerville was a lecturer in Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland from 1975 to 1978 and at Strathclyde University, Glasgow from 1978-86.From 1986 to 2006, he was Professor of Software Engineering in the Computing Department at the University of Lancaster, and in April 2006 he joined the School of Computer Science at St Andrews University, where he teaches courses in advanced software engineering and critical systems engineering.

Ian Sommerville's research work has included system requirements engineering and system evolution. A major focus has been system dependability, including the use of social analysis techniques such as ethnography to better understand how people and computers deliver dependability. He was a partner in the DIRC (Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in Dependability) consortium, Listing as member of DIRC project which focused on dependable systems design and is now (2006) working on the related INDEED (Interdisciplinary Design and Evaluation of Dependability) project. He has also been a member of the board of advisors to the IEEE SWEBOK project. Listing on board of advisors to the IEEE SWEBOK project.He has worked on a number of European projects involving collaboration between academia and commercial enterprises, such as the ESPRIT project REAIMS (Requirements Engineering adaptation and improvement for safety and dependability).

In 2006, Ian Sommerville was one of 23 academics in the computer field who wrote open letters calling for an independent audit of the British National Health Service's proposed Programme for IT (NPfIT) and expressing concern about the GBP 12.4 billion programme.

Most widely read of Sommerville's publications is probably his student text book "Software Engineering", currently in its 9th edition. He has also written or co-authored numerous articles, papers, and a number of books not listed here.