Agile Development Conference & Better Software Conference West 2010

It's fashionable these days to decry the command and control style of management. Although self-organizing teams are all the rage, managers are still responsible for ensuring that teams perform the work that needs to be done and deliver value to the organization. If you are or have been the big boss, you don't just wake up one morning as a different person. Esther Derby shares the servant leader way to think about management that moves from mandate and monitor to guide and support.

Have you ever heard something like “This feature (system) doesn't look anything like what I expected and doesn't do what I want”-even though you were confident that you knew what your customers wanted? Jennifer Bonine presents a strategy for involving customers up front and throughout the requirements definition process. She discusses how you can engage customers and set their expectations for involvement in the project before it begins.

Why do we insist on calling people "resources"? If software projects were a factory, people would be fungible-interchangeable equipment just like desks and computers. Because software development is highly creative work and not a manufacturing factory, we need to manage people as human beings, not as tasks or resources. Johanna Rothman describes how to find and develop the right people for your teams and projects-people who fit your culture, share your values, and will become integral parts of your team.

Highly regulated industries-avionics suppliers, medical device companies, and pharmaceutical manufacturers-must meet rigorous quality standards to ensure their products are not a danger to the general public. Although compliance has traditionally been achieved with heavyweight waterfall or V-model development methodologies, you can implement agile-or lean-agile-development practices that adhere to standards-based regulations while reducing the risk and improving software quality and reliability.