Casare Tizi, former CIO at AGL Energy (the largest energy supplier in Australia), has been granted the title of CIO of the year by ZDNet Australia. In his interview, Tizi goes on to outline his thoughts on the industry, technologies that will shape the future path of business, and in general my favourite - how IT fits in with the rest of the business.
Back in the day when I did my Bachelor's in IT, all of my courses focussed on the purely technical aspects of the industry. To this day I've only really used about 20% of what I learnt at uni, which really is only half the picture in IT. One thing that was never stressed, or even mentioned in my course was the incredible amount of soft skills that you need to develop. It's only until I was thrown in the thick of it that I eventually realised that if you want to go anywhere, being able to write code isn't going to move you.
Don't get me wrong, I mean if you can't write code then you should probably be looking for new career (or become a high-paid consultant); but possessing the ability to not only get involved in your code, but also the people around you and the greater business is crucial. Spending more time with your users, stakeholders and managers, even just for the sake of lollygaging builds networks and draws bugs and otherthings out of the woodwork much easier.
Traditionally IT departments can sometimes be seen as the 'outsiders' of the business. Marketing, sales, accounts all fit in the chain on the same level, but it's harder to pinpoint where IT sits as it's a mixture of being both the supporter, enabler, and if done correctly can help map the direction of the business. Tizi points out that in order to align and integrate IT into the business, it's important for CIO's to sit with the big boys at the strategic planning meetings.
It's obviously not enough just to sit there, you also need to not only explain in Laymans terms how IT can be used to solve given scenarios, but also the follow-on effects of the technologies which essentially can be drawn into business needs. It appears that there's a fine line between turning technological enablers into business objectives, and justifying technologies by trying to find a business driver for it, but given a bit of delicate handling and those soft skills that you'll never study at uni, it can be done.
Not everyone can be a CIO, not everyone wants to be either. I know that personally I still have a long way to go before I have all the soft skills needed to be a successful CIO type, but admitting you have a problem is the first step. By listening to battle hardened veterans such as Tizi, there's a lot that can be learned when it comes to ensuring what you do is worth it, and drives the business forward. Ultimately, isn't that what IT departments are about anyway?