When you boil it down, a CIO’s job is fundamentally about making technology work for the business. At the heart of this charter is making sure suppliers and the organization’s own development teams deliver what the business needs.These two goals are achieved by very different means. Getting what you need from vendors starts with picking the right ones in the first place. While the due diligence process may seem too costly and time-consuming to some IT executives, the consequences of not fully vetting key vendors before you commit to their products can cripple your operations and cost a whole lot more?including your job. This up-front assessment and the subsequent contract you negotiate are insurance against getting left in the lurch. Still, some people simply don’t believe in insurance. And CIOs who have come up through technology may not have a lot of patience for the process?until that first major failure. Before that day comes, read “Do Diligence,” by Senior Writer Meridith Levinson (beginning on Page 64), and learn why it’s so important to scrutinize your vendors?and how to do it right. Delivering on internal projects requires a completely different set of competencies and activities. It’s all about project management and development practices, and in the 35 years people have been developing software systems, things haven’t improved much. That has to do in part with the debate over whether programming is art or science and the attempts to apply strict engineering disciplines to software development (it doesn’t work). It has to do with the fact that many previous methodologies, smart as they are, are difficult to carry out. What’s needed?and what has arrived?is a simpler approach based on the same fundamentals we’ve know about since the late ’60s but have somehow been unable to live up to. It’s called Agile Development, and it and its many cousins cut to the chase and offer prescriptions that work if you work them?sort of a 12-step program (well, it’s actually six) for coding your way to a better future. Senior Writer Scott Berinato tells you what it’s all about in “The Secret to Software Success,” beginning on Page 76.Sure, there’s more to the CIO’s job than getting what you need from vendors and delivering projects to spec on time and within budget, but without those two fundamentals the rest of it doesn’t really matter a whole lot. Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe