Helen Macqueen

Head of Strategy and Delivery for TED (the Technology, Engineering and Data), Coles IT

Strategy is a Top-Down activity. Agile is a Bottom-up one. They both have highly opinionated adherents. They (can) both contribute to success or failure. As an adherent of both, I’m going to talk about the relationship between them, what causes bumps and tussles, and how to ensure that they play nicely together. There may be some metaphors.

About Helen Macqueen

A pretty diverse career including developing CAD/CAM/CAE systems for GM in the UK, setting up and running a software dev company in Zimbabwe, computerising Mozambique’s Customs Department from scratch – analysis, design, testing, implementation and, hardest of all, translating all of the front end into Portuguese – helping a South African bank go agile, running ThoughtWorks Perth for a few years, CDO of a South American airline for a short time, and the Head of Product for a green energy start-up: has all given Helen the opportunity to develop a broad-ranging understanding of leadership in the software industry and how to create awesome teams who build brilliant, valuable software. Recently taking on the role of Head of Strategy for Technology at Coles is a new and interesting pivot in direction and has supported her life-long learning itch. Her favourite phrases include “perfect is the enemy of good enough, done is better than perfect”, “stop starting, start finishing” and “is everyone drinking enough water?”