The Accidental CIO - by Scott Millett (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

An indispensable guide showing IT leaders the way to balance the needs of innovation and exploration with exploitation and operational reliability

Many books on modern IT leadership focus solely on supporting innovation and disruption. In practice these must be balanced with the need to support waste reduction in existing processes and capabilities while keeping the foundation operational, secure, compliant with regulations, and cost effective.

In The Accidental CIO, veteran software developer-turned-executive Scott Millett delivers an essential playbook to becoming an impactful, strategic leader at any stage of your IT leadership journey from your earliest aspirations to long time incumbents in director and C-suite roles. You'll find a wealth of hands-on advice for tackling the many challenges and paradoxes that face technology leaders, from creating an aligned IT strategy, defining a target architecture, designing a balanced operating model, and leading teams and executing strategy.

After the foreword from Simon Wardley, The Accidental CIO will help you:

• Understand problem contexts you will face using the Cynefin decision making framework, and how the philosophies of agile, lean and design thinking can help manage them.
• Design an adaptive and strategically aligned operating model by applying the appropriate ways of working and governance approaches depending on each unique problem context.
• Organize a department using a blend of holacratic and hierarchical principles, and leveraging modern approaches such as Team Topology and Socio-technical patterns.
• Develop and deploy an effective and aligned IT Strategy using Wardley mapping based on a deep knowledge of your business architecture.

With this knowledge you'll be ready to create an empowered IT organization focused on solving customer problems and generating enterprise value. You'll understand the science behind what motivates teams and changes behavior. And you'll show your skills as a business leader thinking beyond IT outputs to impactful business outcomes.

From the Back Cover

Smooth the transition from functional leader to strategic CIO and deliver real business impacts

Transitioning to a leadership role is always difficult. But that's especially true in the world of technology, where the skills necessary to be a great development lead or operations manager are worlds apart from what is required to be an effective CIO or CTO.

In The Accidental CIO: A Lean and Agile Playbook for IT Leaders, veteran software developer-turned-executive Scott Millett delivers an essential playbook to becoming an impactful, strategic leader--whether you've already had the role thrust upon you or your aspirations include a spot in the C-suite. You'll find a wealth of hands-on advice for tackling the many challenges lying in wait for new technology leaders, from creating an aligned IT strategy, to designing each component of your operating model.

In the book, you'll discover how to create an IT organisation that is empowered, and focused on solving customer problems and generating enterprise value. You'll learn to adapt your methods depending on the context of the problem you are facing. You'll understand the science behind what motivates teams and how to change behaviour. You'll be taught how to think like a business leader, and focus on impactful business outcomes rather than IT output alone.

An indispensable resource for newly minted and aspiring technology executives and leaders, The Accidental CIO will help you:

• Transform your ways of working by applying the principles of agile, lean and design thinking, the Cynefin decision making framework and system thinking practices.
• Develop an effective and aligned IT Strategy using Wardley mapping based on a deep knowledge about your business architecture and strategy
• Build an adaptive and agile operating model, from structures and accountability to ways of working and decision rights leveraging modern approaches such as Team Topology patterns.
• Deploy strategy ensuring alignment and ownership at every level within the organisation by cascading direction and measurement.

About the Author

SCOTT MILLETT is a former software developer-turned-CIO. He is the author of Patterns, Principles, and Practices of Domain-Driven Design, Professional ASP.NET Design Patterns, and Professional Enterprise.NET.