Holiday Greetings from Sion Roberts, CEO

Sion Roberts — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:45:33 +0000

2011 has without doubt been a busy year for economic and political observers across the world. Almost every developed country has felt the impact of national and continental reaction to overspending and borrowing in previous years, and individuals, companies and governments have to look for newer and better ways to save money and be efficient while improving effectiveness.
While the general outlook for the immediate future for most in the Western world is one of austerity and prudence, it is easy (and sometimes wrong !) to interpret this as arbitrary “cost cutting” wherever we can…a broader analysis of the problem is invariably needed to determine the right way to achieve desired goals of efficiency and effectiveness, and in IJI’s experience use of software, and specifically GOOD software is a key enabler to these goals.

I’m delighted to say that despite a tough year for corporate and public sector budgets, our clients have taken that broader perspective in 2011 and engaged with our consultants at IJI on many initiatives to improve their businesses though greater software effectiveness, from development of new business-critical applications using Agile principles; to implementing better measures across their software organisations, to introducing new communities of Agile Change Agents and breaking down other barriers to effective software delivery. I’m proud to say that we’ve helped you achieve success and all of us at IJI thank you for the opportunity and look forward to further successes in 2012. We have some very exciting developments scheduled for release in the next twelve months to support these challenges including our key event of the year in March entitled “Succeeding with Agile@Scale” – a subject in which we have significant experience, and one in which we are extremely passionate. I hope that you can join us to hear the perspectives from your peers in the industry on this important topic.

To all of our clients, past, present and future; to our colleagues in the industry and others who know us as a company, I would like to extend the warmest of wishes for the Holiday Period. I hope it brings time for us to pause for a while, and to reflect both personally and professionally on this year and the next one, and on that note I wish you a prosperous and successful New Year.

Sion Roberts

Countdown to the 2010 Olympics

Sion Roberts — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:18:58 +0000

I noticed the other day on my local newscast, that the opening ceremony for this year’s Winter Olympics is only a few weeks away. The newscast showed a sports team working together, training to win one of the most coveted prizes in their career. As per Wikipedia, team sport refers to sports where players interact directly and simultaneously to achieve an objective. When we put this at an Olympic scale, it combines 10,500 competitors from 204 countries. The stakes are high, preparation and training is intense and the cost of failure has tangible and not-so-tangible results. This newscast made me reflect on IJI’s daily interactions with IT teams and I had to conclude that perhaps the similarities are quite strong. Olympic athletic teams, like IT, which includes the study, design, development, implementation, support /management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications, is all about working together to achieve one same goal, either win the medal or in the case of IT have the software work seamlessly within an organization. Both teams consist of individual experts working together for a common goal to be the best. The stakes are high in both cases and the costs are equally high with real tangible dollars tied to wins or failures.
In sports like in IT, without the proper processes, support, communication and people in place, a project/game of any size or importance can fail. In a software development organization the challenges are no different. However, many organizations struggle to bring together the right project team and establish an effective working environment that will breed success for their business.

We often remind our clients that software is developed by people, not by process and tools. Process and tools are important but leaders have to remember that the best processes and tools won’t deliver project success, the team will. And motivating and training them to success is key. Once the appropriate skills and attitudes are identified it’s important to reinforce and support them by constantly monitoring and evaluating usage and ensuring that you continue to foster an environment of new behaviour.

This is only one aspect of ensuring you’re building a winning team. But by beginning to look at key components that will drive project success, you’ll begin to put your team and software implementation on the path to success – and potentially a gold medal.

Ivar Jacobson International » Sion Roberts | Ivar Jacobson International

Holiday Greetings from Sion Roberts, CEO

Countdown to the 2010 Olympics