It’s a roller coaster ride for some of the CIOs in the current IT landscape. The constantly changing environment is not allowing them to take a breathe. The distrusting market changes by the new gen companies are not tolerating anyone who can’t play fair.

The enterprise CIO role is heavily changed from just supervising the tech ecosystem to innovate product to the global customers. A constant urge for the continuous improvement and the need for innovation led culture is in a way an unexplainable pain in the back. This demand demands them to wear multiple hats. While the legacy system to meet the ends and on the other hand the never ending next gen software development should see the sunrise. Even if a piece new gen software rolled out then the customers are very reluctant to appreciate the change. Can’t be happy what he has that’s legacy, can’t get the new one to successfully roll out. Isn’t it a lonely top outcry?

Let’s explore some of the possible reasons why the new gen software never get to roll off…

The answer is pretty simple. YES, as long as they have an answer for the conventional wisdom that is WHY, WHAT and HOW

Lot of times why — they need and what — they need is becoming relatively easy to find. At least, they have handful of references to quote from the competitors. “How” to bring those impressive ‘working’ software in their landscape is a true test to the CIO. “Execution” is the starting point for the bad episode as some of them are not keen to do the dirty job. They wanted to conveniently delegate the execution to the next levels and pretend to be only responsible for the overly sold word ‘strategy’.

The team is ready to sail through but they need a leader to give them the direction. They need someone to take a calculative risk, to accept the failure and to be a torchbearer to the next steps. The team may have mind block by knowing and being with their legacy for years. Unfortunately most of the legacy systems are guarded by the people who are against change. Some of the CIOs are fail to understand the challenge is not the software development rather the people who develops them. Please remember the technologies are used by anyone the CIO get inspired. When the CIO shy away to make decision and hesitant to mark accountability it will be a vicious cycle. As long as the CIO never get to know or never wish to know the ground reality, let them enjoy the corner room until the D-Day.

This un-spelled reality should be spoken about. The boardroom should be broader room to hear the shout.

#CIO #leadership #softwaredevelopment #legacysystems