What I do advocate is an acute understanding of the decisions that need to be made, and the appropriate assignment of accountability for those decisions. CIO, CTO, COO, EIEIO…have as many “O’s” as you desire. The success of any organizational structure is dependent on a clear understanding of the decisions that must be made and who is accountable for those decisions. (Notice I didn’t say, “Who makes the decisions.”)

Ultimately, whatever roles he or she may deem needed, the CIO is accountable for ensuring the decision-making constructs produce the desired results.

Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist
http://community.ca.com/blogs/theitgovernanceevangelist/

What I do advocate is an acute understanding of the decisions that need to be made, and the appropriate assignment of accountability for those decisions. CIO, CTO, COO, EIEIO…have as many “O’s” as you desire. The success of any organizational structure is dependent on a clear understanding of the decisions that must be made and who is accountable for those decisions. (Notice I didn’t say, “Who makes the decisions.”)

Ultimately, whatever roles he or she may deem needed, the CIO is accountable for ensuring the decision-making constructs produce the desired results.

Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist
http://community.ca.com/blogs/theitgovernanceevangelist/

This post was mentioned on Twitter by cbcurran: IT Czar – A New Leadership Position? (please comment and RT) http://bit.ly/8lucXr #CIO…

What creates the internal friction you describe is when you DON’T have someone who is strong in both facets. I worked once as a VP of IT (ops) under a dev-oriented CTO, for example, and his inability to take operational concerns into account caused a lot of friction.

Strategy is up to the CIO principally, working with his peers (CFO, VP of Sales, et al). In some companies, I’ve had the luxury of having a strategy/architecture group, reporting to me directly as CTO. I was responsible not only for directing their work so that it provided maximum business benefit, but for ensuring that it didn’t become an ivory tower effort, separated from day-to-day concerns.

Finally, I don’t quite understand your last sentence, Chris, because I think it is actually more common for one role (call it CIO or CTO, depending on what the company has decided) to be responsible at an executive level for both Ops and Apps, with suitable people under them to manage each area specifically.

What creates the internal friction you describe is when you DON’T have someone who is strong in both facets. I worked once as a VP of IT (ops) under a dev-oriented CTO, for example, and his inability to take operational concerns into account caused a lot of friction.

Strategy is up to the CIO principally, working with his peers (CFO, VP of Sales, et al). In some companies, I’ve had the luxury of having a strategy/architecture group, reporting to me directly as CTO. I was responsible not only for directing their work so that it provided maximum business benefit, but for ensuring that it didn’t become an ivory tower effort, separated from day-to-day concerns.

Finally, I don’t quite understand your last sentence, Chris, because I think it is actually more common for one role (call it CIO or CTO, depending on what the company has decided) to be responsible at an executive level for both Ops and Apps, with suitable people under them to manage each area specifically.

On the topic of splitting the operational duties out from the CIO, I too, would like the CIO as an individual to be versed in projects (investments, development) and process (ops) but I can’t think of anyone who is deep in both. In fact, I think the two worlds are very different and results in internal friction in many organizations I see.

It is also worth having the discussion on responsibility vs accountability for both strategy and day-to-day. I’d be interested in your thoughts regarding which day-to-day area of the IT organization you would put strategy development (if they should be combined).

In all cases, a team approach is essential. I think combining the day-to-day in one roll across Ops and Apps is something few do and is worth looking at.

-Chris

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