Introducing Change, Avoiding Dysfunction

Change can be painful, but staying stagnant can hurt even more. As a manager, how do you decide what should change and how do you know if your organization is ready? When managers seek to improve by introducing new practices such as agile, CMMI, or others, what roadblocks can cause their organizations and teams to reject change-or even worse, to spiral into dysfunction? Michael Mah presents examples of managers who have successfully overcome problems introducing change, plus a few examples of managers who weren't so fortunate. Learn how systems theory plays a role in software development and why complex communication and expert thinking are the penultimate challenges facing many software managers. Discover how accurate and reliable metrics are necessary to reveal patterns that will help you find the right path through an improvement program. In the rush to be faster, better, cheaper, or super-innovative, don't become trapped in organizational and team dysfunction, even to the extent that good medicine won't work.