by CIO.com staff

Going agile requires a culture shift, say CIOs

Feature
May 13, 2016
CIOIT LeadershipSoftware Development

In this free report from the CIO Executive Council, CIOs discuss their journey from waterfall software development to the agile methodology – including the benefits and the challenges. You can learn from these pioneers.

agile development skills
Credit: Thinkstock

“When it comes to agile development … it is less about technology. It is more about mindset, more about culture, more about people and their passion,” says Sudhakar Gorti, CIO at Environmental Data Resources.

Gorti spoke during a recent webcast held by the CIO Executive Council (CEC), where CIOs discussed their journey from waterfall software development to the agile methodology – including the difficulties encountered along the way.

One challenge is getting IT managers to let go of the usual command-and-control style of managing software projects. “That completely changes in agile because that responsibility is turned over to the team. [IT managers] shifted over to enabling the teams and enabling the resources,” says Derek Plunkett, assistant vice president of application development at John Hancock Retirement Plan Services.

The upside? “The beauty of agile is you start to break down the IT-versus-business” mindset, Plunkett says, because of the greater collaboration with business stakeholders.

To get more highlights from the discussion, download this free report, which includes a link to the full CEC webcast.

“When it comes to agile development … it is less about technology. It is more about mindset, more about culture, more about people and their passion,” says Sudhakar Gorti, CIO at Environmental Data Resources.

Gorti spoke during a recent webcast held by the CIO Executive Council (CEC), where CIOs discussed their journey from waterfall software development to the agile methodology – including the difficulties encountered along the way.

One challenge is getting IT managers to let go of the usual command-and-control style of managing software projects. “That completely changes in agile because that responsibility is turned over to the team. [IT managers] shifted over to enabling the teams and enabling the resources,” says Derek Plunkett, assistant vice president of application development at John Hancock Retirement Plan Services.

The upside? “The beauty of agile is you start to break down the IT-versus-business” mindset, Plunkett says, because of the greater collaboration with business stakeholders.

To get more highlights from the discussion, download this free report, which includes a link to the full CEC webcast.

download
CIO Executive Council