The rate of change in today's world is increasing at a phenomenal rate. Organisations that fail to increase their leadership skills in order to deal with change constructively and proactively are dooming themselves to second-tier performance, or worse.
So says Helen Macqueen, principal consultant at ThoughtWorks, who will speak at ITWeb Software Development Management 2015, taking place in Johannesburg on 24 March. During her presentation on "Adaptive leadership: speed to value in a fast-moving world", Macqueen will examine the challenges leaders face when their companies go agile.
"Many leaders assume Agility is simply a programme to be implemented in or by IT, and then wonder why it fails, not realising they are the ones who hamper the teams' efforts by throwing traditional mindsets and behaviours specifically designed to stop a gility and adaptability in their path. Leaders' behaviours and mindsets need to also change," she says.
Macqueen will analyse examples of successful and failed methods regarding adaptive leadership. "A fundamental principle behind the Agile way of working is to reflect on our performance and identify ways we can improve. By looking at successful and failed methods, we are bringing the benefit of agile thinking into leadership practices. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. We can (and should) learn from their mistakes as well as their victories. That helps us avoid pitfalls and adopt strategies with more chance of success."
Joining Macqueen at the event is Dr Alastair Walker, founder and CEO of SPI-LAB. Walker draws attention to the importance of managing customer-side risks: "The customer ultimately bears the full brunt of any failure in software and systems delivery performance given by the supplier. The financial resources expended on a failed IT project are rarely recoverable.
"In most cases, the customer assumes the technical solution proposed by the supplier is feasible and implementable within the agreed timeframe. Invariably, this optimism is misplaced, as development always carries uncertainties with it. Project risk increases dramatically as the volume of code to be developed increases. Consequently, large amounts of code development invariably lead to a high risk of project failure."
During his presentation, Walker will also look at how independent verification and validation (IV&V) helps to manage risk in software development projects. "IV&V offers critical insights to a project that the client is, with rare exceptions, unable to offer. Before the agreement between the customer and supplier is signed off, there are critical project viability checks that need to be assessed. The development risks need to be evaluated, and where necessary, risk mitigation actions identified," he says.
Click here to find out more and register your interest in attending ITWeb Software Development Management 2015.
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