While developers do not fight wars and risk their lifes, the characteristics of their work environment share similarities to those of a battlefield: rapid change and constant uncertainty require us to be highly agile and flexible. To achieve project success, we need to cooperate, lead and communicate efficiently with the team and other business units to make timely and right decisions. The US Marine Corps has a long tradition at solving these problems. Their leadership strategies scale to 190000 soldiers along the entire chain of command. Consequently, it makes sense to draw parallels from these strategies and apply them to our craft.

This session is based on the findings of my academic thesis on the same topic. The talk will give a brief overview of how the US Marine Corps defines war and how it meets the challenges it poses through Mission Command and Control. I will show how Agile Software Development already utilizes similar concepts and which additional strategies we could reap for our benefit, be it as an individual, team or organisation.