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Jim Highsmith
Alumni

Jim Highsmith

Executive Consultant

Jim is an executive consultant with Thoughtworks, Inc., having spent 30-plus years’ as an IT manager, product manager, project manager, consultant, and software developer. In 2005 he was honored to receive international Stevens Award for outstanding contributions to systems development.

 

His first job out of engineering school was on the Apollo manned space program. So he can say that my first project was a success ( my part was minor of course). Jim ran his first agile (not called agile back then) project in the early 1990′s, published his initial “agile” article in 1992, published “Adaptive Software Development” in 1999, co-authored the Agile Manifesto, co-founded the Agile Alliance, and the Agile Project Leadership Network. He published “Agile Project Management” in 2004 & 2009 (2nd edition), and "Adaptive Leadership" in 2013.

 

His work has included consulting with IT and software companies in the U.S., Europe, China, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Japan, India, and New Zealand, helping them adapt to the accelerated pace of change in increasingly complex, uncertain environments. He has held technical and management positions with software, computer hardware, banking, and energy companies. Jim's degrees are in Electrical Engineering and Management. He speaks at conferences worldwide, and has published dozens of articles in major industry publications. Jim is a semi-regular blogger and infrequent tweeter.

 

Major Publications

 

  • Adaptive Leadership: Accelerating Enterprise Agility (Addison-Wesley 2013).
  • Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products (Addison-Wesley 2004, 2009)
  • Agile Software Development Ecosystems(Addison-Wesley, 2002)
  • Adaptive Software Development: A Collaborative Approach to Managing Complex Systems(Dorset House, 2000) which won the prestigious Jolt Award
  • Co-editor, with Alistair Cockburn, of the Agile Software Development Series of books from Addison Wesley

Industry Contributions & Affiliations

 

Awards & Recognition

 

Thoughtworks acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land where we work and live, and their continued connection to Country. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were the world's first scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians. We celebrate the stories, culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders of all communities who also work and live on this land. 

 

As a company, we invite Thoughtworkers to be actively engaged in advancing reconciliation and strengthen their solidarity with the First Peoples of Australia. Since 2019, we have been working with Reconciliation Australia to formalize our commitment and take meaningful action to advance reconciliation. We invite you to review our Reconciliation Action Plan.