Herr der Verboten
Honorary Master
Post BA, SA, PM and Developers do you actually (nowadays) need a CTO?
If so what functional role can they play (if any)?
If so what functional role can they play (if any)?
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CTO within a development environment
- Thread starter Herr der Verboten
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B-1
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Depends on the business really. Doing things like Exco presentations, maintaining relationships on a b2b level and departmental level yes I still see the need but the strategic and technical decisions seem to have moved more into the teams doing the implementation.
powermzii
Expert Member
In some Orgs you need the CTO to go and hunt for / motivate / protect budgets. General tech improvements should be purvue of the teams though
I’ve been in environments where the CTO has had very different roles.
In one company, the CTO was the overall manager: A very technical person (MSc) who had been managing an organization of hundreds of developers.
In another, the CTO is also very technical (PhD) drove the technical direction of the company by running a research mini-organization, whose results would determine what gets built next, while a Senior VP ran all of the software development.
In one company, the CTO was the overall manager: A very technical person (MSc) who had been managing an organization of hundreds of developers.
In another, the CTO is also very technical (PhD) drove the technical direction of the company by running a research mini-organization, whose results would determine what gets built next, while a Senior VP ran all of the software development.
Herr der Verboten
Honorary Master
So your EA just does (extra) what a CTO would have. How many other things enjoys his attention?
MaisonP
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A good EA can actually implement various methods from a technical perspective but also from a business perspective. They are also much more hands on specially in the IT teams.
CTO sits on board level and spew all the achievements that the architect and his team delivered.
Also, most EA's I know has also done their MBA. So much more of an all rounder than any CTO.
CTO sits on board level and spew all the achievements that the architect and his team delivered.
Also, most EA's I know has also done their MBA. So much more of an all rounder than any CTO.
NightShift
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In big organisations the CIO/CTO role is a pretty standard part of the C-suite. There are very large strategic decisions that are made at that level that far supersede the size of anything being worked on at a team level. In my experience it has been a more strategic role that also encompasses a degree of governance/framework/performance measurement with ultimate feedback to the board on performance achieved against the strategic objective that are driven by the board of directors.
That’s why John Carmack stepped down as the CTO of Oculus - got replaced by an EA with an MBA.