Paul E. McMahon, Principal, PEM Systems, has 23 years' industry experience as a software developer, team leader, and manager. For the past 15 years, he has been an independent consultant focusing on coaching project managers, team leaders, and software professionals in the practical use of Lean and Agile techniques in constrained environments (e.g., physically distributed teams, CMMI compliance requirements, corporate governance requirements). Mr. McMahon takes a hands-on approach with his clients, providing tailored workshops and individual coaching as the situation warrants. He is a Certified ScrumMaster and a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Mr. McMahon has published over 40 articles on software development; has written two books, Integrating CMMI and Agile Development: Case Studies and Proven Techniques for Faster Performance Improvement and Virtual Project Management: Software Solutions for Today and the Future; and cowrote the forthcoming The Essence of Software Engineering: Applying the SEMAT Kernel. He has been a member of the CrossTalk editorial review board since 2004 and a leader in the SEMAT (www.semat.org) initiative since its inception. He can be reached at pemcmahon@acm.org; website: www.pemsystems.com.