and Chief Engineers

The Chief Engineer is going to be my segue to That Vision Thing. Before we go there though, I would like to make something more obvious: In a successful product organization, it is easy to find the Chief Engineer. In a project organization, such as a ordinary IT shop for some business or another it is harder to spot them. Let’s think though. The Business cares little for IT. IT is a Means to an End. The End is to meet the profit expectations of the Board. To do that, they must increase throughput. To do that, they need tools. These tools are the products of the IT organization. The Chief Engineer, the visionary, is the one who creates such a path through the forest so as to meet the Business’ expectations. The Chief Engineer is the one who helps the business establish a portfolio, helps them manage it, and then helps the IT organization execute against it in the appropriate order. The Chief Engineer of an IT organization must be the CIO. They are the ones who are held responsible for the throughput. They are responsible for meeting expectations. Most CIOs don’t accept this role and responsibility unfortunately.