Akis Sklavounakis' research focuses on the adoption, organizational impact and governance of agile, enterprise agile, agile transformation, project to product transformation, and DevOps. He covers the cultural changes required, the solutions to the challenges of the new ways of working, and the evolving relationship between project management and agile. He also helps application and software engineering leaders with practical advice on attracting, growing and retaining talent.
As a Key Initiative leader for Software Engineering Leadership and Practices he works with a number of expert analysts and researchers in delivering thought leading, practical and actionable content on topics such as: Engineering talent management, software development, architecture, agile product delivery, product and platform strategy, business-driven decision making and operating models for high-quality software delivery.
Mr. Sklavounakis has extensive experience as a project manager, programme manager, heading client delivery teams and managing solutions delivery in the online services, payments, financial services and banking sectors.
Prior to joining Gartner, Mr. Sklavounakis worked in one of the top three banks in the Middle East, Emirates National Bank of Dubai, as a senior programme manager. He was part of the team who spearheaded the agile transformation, led core agile initiatives and coached teams in the new way of working. Before that he headed the project management and client delivery function for First Data in the SEEMEA region. He started his career in the U.K., working for major software, telecom and media companies, leading project delivery.
Emirates NBD Bank
Senior Programme Manager
First Data
Head of Project Management and Client Delivery
Various U.K. Companies
Senior Project Manager
Applications and Software Engineering Leaders
Software Engineering Technologies
Software Engineering Practices
M.Sc., Management Science and Computer Applications, Cranfield University, U.K.
Physics, University of Ioannina, Greece
1Agile and DevOps transformation
2Project to product transformation
3Scaling agile across the enterprise
4Engineering talent management
5Enterprise Agile Planning tools