About Ken Judy

Ken Judy, Trusted Adviser and Coach, Purpose-Oriented LeaderI am an accomplished executive coach and technical leader with 30 years of experience in software development. Throughout my career, I have excelled as a software executive manager, developer, product owner, and agile coach.

I am passionate about transforming teams and organizations through ethical thinking, agile values, and creative problem solving. I am committed to continuous learning and professional excellence. As a purpose-driven leader, I strive to create a positive impact for our clients, our people, and our planet.

I am a Certified Scrum Professional, an IEEE Computer Society Certified Software Development Professional, and an IAPP Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States.

I have written peer reviewed papers and experience reports and presented on product ownership, agile and software ethics, instilling agile values, management in an agile organization and the lack of sufficient numbers of women in software development at Agile, Agile NYC, Scrum Gatherings and the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS).

Why I embrace collaborative, team-based approach to leadership

My first development job was in a three person consultancy working alone and crashing for a deadline. Classic code and fix. I was pretty successful at it. I generally delivered on time. Often through sheer force of will.

As I moved on to larger companies, I suffered under well-intentioned but corrosive attempts at waterfall. Craig Larman’s Agile & Iterative Development has a great description of how these attempts at perfectable planning and design are based on a misinterpretation of W.W. Royce’s writings.

Some of these projects were successful but the process prized simple agreement over trust. At it’s worst it entrenched hierarchies, discouraged vulnerability, and fetishized heroics. I was burning out. My friends were quitting. As if that weren’t bad enough, success often fit Mike Cohn’s description of delivering the wrong software on time and on budget.

Meaningful products can emerge from horrible process. But a way of working that tears down talented people’s desire to work is tragic. To repeatedly participate in this is to sap the world of it’s limited supply inspiration, creativity and joy. My main goal is to avoid this evil.

Over time I learned some techniques for effective iterative planning, risk management, and estimation. I learned how to work with others to deliver quality software. Through Earned Value Planning, regular inspection points and risk lists we built transparency into our practices. With realistic schedules we were able to maintain a reasonable work-life balance.

Still, the weakness I saw in my team and in my leadership style was relying way to heavily on the abilities and day to day motivation of individuals. I had to manage the project. My best developer had to work on it. If one of us had a bad day the project might grind to a halt. Our whole wasn’t adding up to the talents of the individuals.

The best results occur when we allow people to be themselves at their best. People want to make a contribution, create value, make a positive impact in their communities, to learn, and live honestly. Our humanity demands time for family, friends and outside interests.

It took me a while to really grok that excellence isn’t about adopting a shared set of practices. It’s about rallying around a shared set of values. I shifted from mentoring my team on how I did things to a conversation about why we do what we do.

IEEE Computer Society Certified Software Development ProfessionalScrum Alliance Certified Scrum PractitionerCIPP/US