Alistair Cockburn has described software development as a game in which we choose among three moves: invent, decide, and communicate. Most of our time at technology conferences is spent learning how to be better at inventing. Beyond that, we understand the importance of good communication, and take steps to improve in that capacity. Rarely, however, do we acknowledge the role of decision making in the life of software teams, what can cause it to go wrong, and how to improve it.

At Great Indian Developer Summit 2011 to take place April 19-22 in Bangalore, India, Tim Berglund will explore decision making pathologies and their remedies in individual, team, and organizational dimensions. He'll consider how our own cognitive limitations can lead us to to make bad decisions as individuals, and what we might do to compensate for those personal weaknesses. Tim will show how a team can fall into decision-making dysfunction, and what techniques a leader might employ to healthy functioning to an afflicted group. He will also look at how organizational structure and culture can discourage quality decision making, and what leaders can do to swim against the tide.

Software teams spend a great deal of time making decisions that place enormous amounts of capital on the line. Team members and leaders owe it to themselves to learn how to make them well. Give yourself the gift of GIDS. Register before 1800 Hrs 17th February to avail the early bird discount of 50%.

About the speaker: Tim Berglund is a developer, consultant, and trainer who builds web applications with open-source tools, especially Groovy and Grails. Tim specializes in helping clients through periods of technology transition, with interests spanning web applications, business integration, data architecture, and software architecture. In all these engagements, he is especially passionate about helping developers improve in their craft. Tim is an international conference speaker at venues such as The Server Side Symposium Europe, The Scandinavian Developer Conference, and No Fluff Just Stuff. He also speaks at user groups in the United States, and helps lead IASA Denver and the Denver Open Source User Group (DOSUG). He is currently writing the book Deploying Grails (O'Reilly), due out in 2010. Tim blogs regularly about technology and software development.