IT Team Management: leadership and management

Course overview

Description generated based on course syllabus and open data.

Develop a structured approach to IT team management that combines leadership, management and effective communication. The program covers goals and roles, processes, 1:1s, motivation and conflict handling, plus Hersey–Blanchard situational leadership and value-based leadership.

Program and approach to IT team management

• Leadership: the manager as a facilitator of change, balancing management and trust.
• Situational leadership (Hersey–Blanchard), value-based leadership.
• Team formation: roles, responsibilities, expectations, OKRs/KPIs.
• Processes and project management: planning, risks, delivery, retrospectives.
• Communication: 1:1s, feedback, stakeholder management, cross-functional collaboration.
• Motivation, burnout prevention, mental health support.
• Conflict management, escalation protocols, mediation.
• Leader’s time and self-management, prioritization.

Lecturer

Dmytro Irzhytskyi, Delivery Director at SoftServe: 20+ years in IT, 9+ at SoftServe; led 200+ people teams; experience with multinational teams and portfolios in health care, manufacturing and insurance.

Who it suits / who it does not suit in IT team management

Who it suits

• Team Leads, Tech Leads, Delivery/Project Managers coordinating multiple teams.
• Engineers transitioning to an IT team manager role.
• Managers needing structured tools for 1:1s, motivation and conflict handling.

Who it does not suit

• Those seeking a purely technical stack without leadership or communication focus.
• Those expecting outcomes without practice and reflection.

IT team management problems → working outcomes of approaches

• Unclear roles and expectations → transparent RACI/role model and aligned OKRs.
• Overload and priority chaos → planning frameworks, kanban/scrum cadences, WIP control.
• Weak feedback loops → regular 1:1s, structured feedback, development plans.
• Conflicts and escalations → mediation techniques, escalation and prevention protocols.
• Low engagement → motivation tools, burnout prevention, psychological safety support.

Comparison with alternatives in managing IT teams

• Self-study from books/articles: fragmented, hard to apply in multi-team settings.
• Internal trainings without practice: limited case coverage, little feedback.
• Theory-heavy online courses: rarely dive deep into 1:1s, conflicts and stakeholdering.
• This IT team management program: application-first: cases, role-play, tools for day-to-day practice.

Results of completing IT team management

• A toolkit covering 1:1s, feedback, RACI, OKRs/KPIs, risk register, retrospective checklists.
• Understanding of role setup and development, onboarding and adaptation.
• Practices of situational and value-based leadership for different team maturities.
• Methods for conflict resolution and psychological safety support.
• Stable approaches to prioritization, time and self-management of the manager.