TCF 2nd Professional Conference
Management & Technology Track
Is Your Development Team's Performance What It Could Be?
Abstract : A guide on how-to implement a "people-friendly" development process that rallies the team, reduces your risk and yields a better product. Depending on whom you ask (and how honest they are), between 50 and 80% of software projects fail. The software is late, over budget or misses on critical user expectations. To cure these ills, there is no shortage of different processes and methodologies, yet, adoption of process is slow and many companies face a backlash from their team on process improvement efforts. Many companies move from one process to another, without substantial improvements in performance. How do you know which process, and how much process, is right for your organization? Is process improvement even worth the effort? Will it improve performance? Addressing common issues pragmatically with the right amount of process enables an application or product development group to meet their commitments consistently and improve what might have been a tenuous relationship with their customers. This seminar will provide concrete ideas on where to start a process improvement effort, how to get buy-in, and how to implement changes without slowing down current development. It will offer a path toward process improvement based on incremental steps and continuous improvement that makes it easier for companies to commit and follow-through on process changes that enhance their product development team?s performance. Bio : Judi Otton is a principal with Advanced Decisions, a consulting firm that specializes in product development. Judi consults with growing technology companies on product development process, software development lifecycle and product management. Prior to joining Advanced Decisions, Judi was an executive at ESPN, where she led the application development organization in deploying applications across several Walt Disney business units, and in instituting effective development processes that reduced support and maintenance costs. Prior to ESPN, Judi was at Transcentive (now ComputerShare), where she led their application development effort and helped launch their global product line, bringing new software products and services to market. As a former practitioner herself, Judi brings depth of hands-on management and development experience to clients in addressing the unique challenges they face in bringing their products/applications to market. She has a BSEE from Northeastern University, an MSEE from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an MBA from Fairfield University. |