One of the most pressing problems faced by software companies—lack of competent managers.
Management of a “typical” software company can be divided into three levels:
- lower-level managers: team leaders;
- Project Managers;
- Heads of divisions: divisions, departments, directions, practices and so on.
This report will focus on the third group of leaders. Why? Because it is less spoken about in public.
Most of those present in the Russian market domestic IT companies were created during the turbulent 90s. And it is a typical situation when the positions of department heads have been divided between the founders of companies and employees who were in the top ten (one hundred).
But the companies grow, and their founders don’t become younger—and most of the acute problems is selecting of managers.
The report will analyze the two-year experiment of carrying out special programs aimed at training middle and senior managers.
Author: Anatoly Sourkis
Vice-President, СOO, Digital Design
In 1986 Anatoly Sourkis graduated with honors from the Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers (LIIZHT), specializing in «Systems Engineering», in 1992 he became a postgraduate.
He started his career as an engineer at the system data center, then he researched into computational linguistics, was also a co-owner of one of the first Russian companies working in this field.
From 1990 to 1999 he worked as a lecturer of the «COMPUTER» department at LIIZHT University, wrote a series of training courses.
He joined Digital Design team as a programmer in 1995. In 1997 he became head of the department. In 1998 he took the post «Director of the Department of Software Solutions». Since 2004, he served as CFO, and in 2008 became vice-president and Chief Operational Officer (COO).
In 1998 he received the status of Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD), and in 1999—the status of Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT).
Since 2001 he has still the current status of Project Manager Professional (PMP) and one of the first Russian experts in the field of project management.
In 2005 he received an MBA. Professionally concerned with the organization of project management and general management in IT companies, Anatoly is still speaking at various seminars and conferences.