Having worked as a project manager, general manager and Agile coach I have become interested in leadership and how great leaders help create teams who are engaged, motivated and deliver the results organisations need. On Wednesday evening, I delivered a presentation on '10 traits of effective IT leadership' to a group of Equinox IT clients and staff. In this post, I summarise some of my key points from this presentation.

Why does change always fail?

It’s a bold statement and one that I bet a lot of you are already arguing against in your head. But think for a minute, when was the last time you were involved in a change that actually delivered what it was supposed to?

Cloud technologies continue to evolve and many providers now offer Serverless Computing or Function-as-a-Service options that have new advantages and uses for organisations. We had Equinox IT Senior Consultant Carl Douglas present to our clients and our own team about Serverless Computing - what it is, the benefits and uses.

Shane Ross introduced Daniel Scott-Raynsford of IAG New Zealand at our client event a couple of weeks ago, and in the process he provided some context on why we approached IAG to speak. Many examples of successful DevOps, Agile and Cloud adoption focus on start-up and high-growth companies who are able to bake in these approaches from the start, unencumbered by legacy technology, strict regulatory controls and deep-rooted structures and ways of working.

We often are asked about the roles of Project Manager and Scrum Master for Agile projects. Are they both needed? What are the boundaries? Should they be combined?

So, last month Equinox IT Principal Consultant Carl Weller deliver the 'Agile leadership roles - let's clear up the confusion between PM & Scrum Master' presentation twice for some of our clients. Carl identified that there can be a role for both Project Managers and Scrum Masters on many Agile initiatives...