For the CIO / CTO / IT Manager under fire

 If you have stopped sleeping on Sunday nights because of Monday's status meeting; if your CEO's last three questions to you were "why is your budget so big," "why is delivery not improving," and "why do you need another developer when the last one didn't move anything," and if your team is genuinely working hard while somehow nothing the business sees is moving fast enough - you are in the situation I have spent 23 years inside of, and 23 years getting people out of. 

 I have sat in your seat. I know the meeting where the business says "we put it in the Roadmap, why is it not done" and you have to explain - for the fifth quarter in a row - that putting things in the Roadmap is not the same as having capacity to deliver them. 

 In thirty years across companies of every size, the IT-leader-under-fire problem turns out to be one of three things - and almost never the one you are being blamed for. 

The Roadmap is a wish-list, not a plan. No capacity model behind it. Change Management informal. SLA undefined. The team is moving fast on the wrong things, or slowly on the right things - but no one can tell which. 

You have been told to "hire more developers" without a framework for which ones, in which roles, with which incentives. The CFO or the CEO is right that the last hire did not change anything - but the reason is the role definition and the bonus model, not the recruiter. 

The business decided what IT is supposed to do without asking what IT can do, and IT has never translated its work into business-credible outcomes. This is the most common one. It is also the one that gets you replaced if it is not addressed. 

If you want to do something useful in the next 12 minutes, take the 12-question self-assessment. It will tell you which of the three culprits is dominant in your situation, give you three things to do this week, and give us both a much sharper starting point if you decide to book the call. 

                                                                           - Radu