Great developers are rare. To find them is difficult, and keeping them is even more difficult. Providing a challenging and engaging environment is critical for attracting and retaining developers, says Samantha Laing, Agile coach and trainer at Growing Agile.
Laing, along with her Karen Greaves, also an Agile coach and trainer at Growing Agile, are two of the guest presenters at the ITWeb Software Development Management 2015, scheduled to take place in Johannesburg on 24 March. They will explore the theme of managing software development in the age of Agile.
Laing and Greaves will discuss the importance of the mindset an Agile manager needs to adopt. "It is crucial, when adopting Agile for managers, to understand their role needs to change from managing the work to managing the environment. If this switch does not happen, teams will not reap the benefits of self-organisation," says Greaves.
"Agile managers are leaders and, as leaders, our job is to help our people be the best they can be," adds Laing.
At the conference, Laing and Greaves will increase awareness of focusing on specific practices like hiring, performance reviews and salaries, and how these need to change to support an Agile team. "Performance reviews are an outdated and damaging practice for knowledge workers. Without updating management practices, companies will not be able to sustain an Agile transition for more than a few years," says Greaves.
Laing and Greaves will be joined by Dr Rolan Christian, MD at Square Peg Innovation. Christian will examine lessons learned from applying an Agile product development approach in software start-ups. He will provide clear and practical examples of how to improve the use of Agile development in software businesses.
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