Jim McCarthy is blessed with a proven ability to see the future, to create value around what he sees, and to thereby bring the future closer. While at Microsoft and Bell Laboratories, he saw there was a better way to build products by focusing on the team around him. He used this observation to create one of the greatest Microsoft teams, the Visual C++ team. Much of Microsoft adopted his ideas as articulated in the seminal book, Dynamics of Software Development from Microsoft Press in 1995 (and a new 2006 edition). His approach and observations have been shared through many speaking engagements. They formed the basis of Microsoft Solutions Framework and were a catalyst for and the true progenitor of the Extreme and Agile programming movements.
Jim partners with his wife, Michele McCarthy, to run McCarthy Technologies, Inc., which provides technology and consulting that enables organizations and teams to consistently generate the greatest possible results. The key to these results is an innovative, proprietary technology called “The Core”. It encapsulates and makes accessible the best interpersonal collaboration technology currently available and has been thoroughly researched, tested and applied over the past twelve years. Just as Jim’s earlier approaches helped form Microsoft’s successful culture, and ultimately gave rise to the XP and Agile movements, his current research into The Core is poised to help a new generation of organizations achieve their highest potential.
Michele McCarthy graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a Master’s in engineering. Beginning in 1990, Michele worked at Microsoft as a program manager on five projects, establishing a reputation for shipping on time. Jim McCarthy met Michele and encouraged her to move to the Visual C++ group where she began innovating in the area of team dynamics. While at Microsoft, Michele reached many of the insights that led her and Jim to leave Microsoft and create McCarthy Technologies, Inc. She is responsible for the development of many of the team formation concepts McCarthy Technologies practices and teaches today.
More recently, Michele co-wrote “Software For Your Head,” 2001, Addison-Wesley, and the 2006 edition of “Dynamics of Software Development,” by Microsoft Press. Michele has brought her team efficiency skills to bear on the McCarthy BootCamps and the subsequent development of The Core Protocols. She is currently the primary instructor at McCarthy BootCamps around the world, the primary consultant to McCarthy Technologies’ clients, and co-hosts The McCarthy Show podcast with Jim. Her passion is transforming groups of executives into true teams and advising high potential leaders.
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