Meeting of minds and merging of mind-sets

It is a fact thathardly a day goes by without some news or report of a new discovery, a new invention, advancement in products and services, or a breakthrough achievement. While this unprecedented progress is creating new opportunities for people across the world, it is also creating new complications for many of the existing social, cultural, environmental, governmental, industrial, commercial, and other types of systems that are vital to support our very existence. This paper focuses particularly on a specific type of human factor that has a universal and persistent footprint on every aspect of transformation and delivery of complex software systems. Namely, our ability to influence and change human minds and adjust or compromise individual goals and objectives in order to accomplish shared values. The human mind and mind-set play a critical role in how people involved in transforming complex software systems and people impacted by transformed IT ecosystems work together to accomplish goals and objectives. Meeting of minds and merging of mind-sets is a mission-critical factor that deserves a deeper dive to understand the significant parameters and forces that drive people towards acknowledging and accomplishing shared values. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.