How to enable ambidexterity in safety-critical software development: This article reports on a safety-critical development project that achieved ambidexterity and highlights four leadership behaviors that can enhance project outcomes.

Overview: in a competitive environment, continually improving new products and services requires new knowledge and novel solutions. Managing projects also requires the careful control of resources for effective delivery. Ambidexterity, the simultaneous achievement of novelty through exploration and efficiency through exploitation, is challenging to achieve in practice. The ways in which companies can achieve ambidexterity are context dependent. It is especially hard to promote new and uncertain concepts in situations where lives are at stake. This article reports on a case study of a safety-critical IT development project that successfully achieved ambidexterity. Leadership behaviors that support ambidexterity in this setting are critical. We highlight four leadership behaviors key to developing an environment where creative solutions can flourish.

Agile, Ambidexterity, Project management, Safety critical, Software development

10.1080/08956308.2023.2293647

0895-6308

35-43

Turner, Neil

03e7f778-a75d-4afe-afe3-279f483b2aa8

Baxter, David

a7d6ba3f-370f-493d-9202-218d5e6dfc54

28 February 2024

Turner, Neil

03e7f778-a75d-4afe-afe3-279f483b2aa8

Baxter, David

a7d6ba3f-370f-493d-9202-218d5e6dfc54

Turner, Neil and Baxter, David (2024) How to enable ambidexterity in safety-critical software development: This article reports on a safety-critical development project that achieved ambidexterity and highlights four leadership behaviors that can enhance project outcomes. Research Technology Management, 67 (2), 35-43. (doi:10.1080/08956308.2023.2293647).