Jim Highsmith is an Executive Consultant at Thought- Works, Inc. He has 50-plus years’ experience as an IT manager, product manager, project manager, consultant, software developer, and storyteller. Jim has been a leader in the agile software development community for the past two decades.

Jim is the author of Adaptive Leadership: Accelerating Enterprise Agility (Addison-Wesley, 2014); Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products (Addison-Wesley, 2009); Adaptive Software Development: A Collaborative Approach to Managing Complex Systems (Dorset House, 2000), which won the prestigious Jolt Award; and Agile Software Development Ecosystems (Addison-Wesley, 2002). Jim is the recipient of the 2005 international Stevens Award for outstanding contributions to systems development.

Jim is a coauthor of the Agile Manifesto, a founding member of The Agile Alliance, coauthor of the Declaration of Interdependence for project leaders, and cofounder and first president of the Agile Leadership Network. Jim has consulted with IT, product development organizations, and software companies in the United States, Europe, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, India, and New Zealand.