An organization may react to the change by trying to appease the dissenting voices. When that happens efforts may be focused on a dissatisfied minority at the expense of a satisfied majority, and in the worst scenario, he says, the organization spirals downward until it s disbanded. There are many examples of great organizations losing their edge some continue a set of activities that have shown success over a period of time and then spiral downward. Work efforts are intensified but the downward trend continues, said Hathaway. In the field of technology, he notes, this scenario is not uncommon.
Some failures are extremely costly.
Which organizations will succeed and which will fail is not a matter of chance, he said. Hathaway will use both successful and unsuccessful examples of software and systems development projects to provide insight into a variety of approaches to development methodology. As a software engineer with Hughes Aircraft, Hathaway says he experienced great success without realizing that the company s process infrastructure was partly responsible. Finding a dearth of such infrastructure after leaving Hughes he started to implement similar methodologies in other organizations. The success of his efforts led to several promotions at Novell, Inc. where he became director of Novell Labs and director of developer services and later to a position as vice president of engineering at GenRad Corporation.