Making IT work for business
I am a Software Business Consultant based in London - i.e. My focus is on the business side of the software development. I specialise in helping companies that produce software to sell or to provide a business service. Typically my clients are companies in the ISV or SaaS space but I also work with corporate IT departments on occasion.
I help client teams and companies:
- Adopt Agile and Lean development methods in the development of software to improve delivery effectiveness
- Align products and processes with business strategy
- Develop the right product and develop it right
In other words: I help companies get more effective by doing the right thing, and I help them do the right thing in the first place. Past client have included: Virgin Atlantic Airways, Merrill Lynch, lastminute.com (part of Sabre Tavelocity), BBC and others - a longer client list with case studies can be found on the Software Strategy web-site.
Software Strategy provides training and consulting/coaching in Agile development plus advice on product strategy, market positioning of software products and business growth. I have helped many companies transition to Agile/Lean development and increasingly find myself helping companies deepen and embed Agile working.
Writing and events
I have written extensively on: Agile Software Development, Software Development Management, Design Patterns and the technical aspects of software development; and I am the creator of Retrospective Dialogue Sheets.
Business Patterns for Software Developers is now available for pre-order and will be published in February 2012 by John Wiley & Sons. Earlier versions of these patterns are can be read on this site under business patterns.
Changing Software Development: Learning to be Agile was published by John Wiley and Sons in January 2008. You can buy Changing Software Development at Amazon now.
September 2010 News Changing Software Development is now available in Japanese
Encapsulated Context design pattern was included in Pattern Languages of Program Design (volume 5).
More writing on software design and software development management of software teams, and Agile software development. Also allan's blog is here.
A full list of public training courses in Agile and Lean is available on the Software Strategy site.
I am a regular conference speaker and a list of past and future events is on this page.
History, Education and awards
I hold a BSc degree in Combined Science (Computing) from Leicester University and an MBA at Nottingham University Business School - I was awarded the Best Overall Student prize in my MBA class.
Earlier in my career I was an software engineer specialising in C++ on Unix and Windows. During this time I worked for companies in the UK and California including: Reuters, Southern Electric PLC, BZW bank, Sema Group (Railtrack A-Plan) and others.
Professionally I am a qualified PRINCE 2 Practitioner Project Manager (although I have never used it in anger and disagree with much of it) and and have completed Product Manager training with Pragmatic Marketing. I am an active member of the ACCU and Hillside Europe (the organisers of the EuroPLoP Patterns conference). I have twice been honoured with the Neil Harrison Shepherding Award, at EuroPLoP 2005 and VikingPLoP 2007.
Contact
e-mail allan@allankelly.net