I’m looking forward to keynoting at Agile Cambridge this year! It’s October 1st and 2nd my keynote opens the second day. I’ll be talking about “The Accountability Problem.” How do we define software department accountability so our business partners don’t do it for us?

Software departments have a problem: they don’t know how to be accountable. The Sales, Marketing, Partners, and Customer Success departments do: Sales is accountable for the revenue they bring in; Marketing is accountable for qualified leads; Partners is accountable for partner revenue; Customer Success is accountable for retention. They look over at Engineering, and ask... what are they doing? How come they’re not accountable?

When we don’t define accountability, our business partners do it for us. The results are... Not Good. Dysfunctional performance metrics, schedules, and dates. Prediction. Micromanagement. It leads to low value software, deferred maintenance, shortcuts, technical complexity, and soaring costs.

As VP of Engineering at OpenSesame for the past two years, and a software process consultant for the past 25, James Shore has been wrestling with this problem for years. How can software departments be accountable without creating dysfunction or falling into the prediction trap? How can our contributions be as clear and effective as Sales, Marketing, and Partners’?

Join James Shore in this keynote session exploring the threats and possibilities of The Accountability Problem.

I’m honored to be speaking alongside Gitte Klitgaard, Simon Wardley, and many other accomplished speakers.

Register here. Get 10% off by using the promo code 10JAMES when you check out!