Today was a very interesting day, I gave a talk on software development and leadership at M.I.T. for a class in the SDM program. Due to a few external reasons playing in my head, my presentation started a little slow but as time wore on I began to hit my groove. In fact I was sad when time ran out for Q&A!

My talk focused on soft power, trust, change and agile. The four areas flowed quite well together and I enjoyed weaving in a few stories from my time in the trenches. One area I wanted to concentrate on was bringing about software development change in an existing organisation. In order to bring about change, you need the trust of your team, the ability to get buy in from your stakeholders and enough approval from those around you so that you aren’t thwarted before you even start.  These points from my Kobiayshi Maru slide sum up my thoughts on this situation quite well:

• If you don’t see a way to change a situation: Think again, there is always a path – don’t Rush a Solution
• Find a champion
• Gain the trust of your team
• Gain the trust of your Quality Dept
• Be honest and open with your team
• Ride the chaos and channel it as best you can
• Find the level of change you can enact. Build from here
• Set small victories to increase momentum
• Never stop improving