After a good run for 2 years in the BI department at USG People, the IT Manager Software Development was promoted to a new assignment and I was asked to step in. Since we had out first baby underway I gave it serious though and discussed the situation. After validating the expectations on all sides, I felt confident and took up the role of IT Manager Software development.
My assignment: Make sure the automated processes keep on running smoothly and make the teams, the processes and the software future proof. For this I had a team of 40+ software engineering specialists available as well as a yearly budget.
Although I knew most people from my earlier years at USG People I made time to talk to everybody at the start of the assignment. I wanted to get to know them even better so I would know what motivated them and what didn’t. Since we were bound for change, it is important to know what everybody stands for and everybody needs to know, and trust, the person at the wheel.
Alongside the talks I studied the procedures, made sure I had handover sessions and familiarized myself with the budget and the project roll. I also needed to find a replacement for my old position and I needed to hire a new team lead for someone who left earlier. Busy times, in business and in personal life. Fortunately I managed to use my time and effort in a flexible way which made it possible to combine the role of young father and the role of IT manager.
As forseseen a lot of change was realized in the course of the years: we evolved to a matrix oriented department, agile was introduced, all websites were changed to responsive designs (Mobile first!) and the most important pieces of software got an update to become future proof. This was done by updating and/or changing the framework or software stack and by taking a good look at the processes this software was supporting.
Needless to say I had a good internal network to get this done, and superb people working with me.
The enterprise/software architecture, I guarded myself, and I personally oversaw business analysis, as well as the largest program in the team. Besides that I had 4 very capable team leads to help me control software development.
My job also included creating a budget for my department and defending it before the IT director and CIO. And being the IT manager software for Belgium I was also part of the innovation board of USG where we advised the CIO on the trends and the course to follow regarding automation.