The accountability problem

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