Adventures of an It Leader

Rob Austin, Richard Nolan, and Shannon O'Donnell have done what is truly difficult in the field of IT writing: they have written an IT book that I believe will stand the test of time. As an IT strategist, I am often struck by how quickly the information in IT journals and books become stale due to the pace of change in technology. The authors have captured highly relevant vignettes that will provide key lessons for IT leaders today and in the future. The authors' use of a fictional hero, Jim Barton, has allowed them to take real examples, and without having to worry about hurting the original perpetrators' feelings, present unvarnished stories and the lessons that come from them. The presentation is quite appealing, and lessons apply to CIOs and business leaders alike across industries, geographies and size of companies. "Adventures of an IT Leader" notes that IT management is not unlike business management in general. The borrowing across disciplines is useful in making this point, and in calling to the attention of business and IT leaders alike that IT is no long just the domain of the techno-geek. This book will be of particular value to executives in transition. I have recommended it to clients who have recently been promoted to CIO and to IT executives who are changing companies especially. I also think, however, that it is a great book for IT leaders who are a degree or two removed from the CIO role who aspire to have the top role one day. "Adventures of an IT Leader" provides many lessons for the aspiring leader that will allow him or her to avoid the pitfalls that the stories describe. All in all, this is an enjoyable and instructive read. I highly recommend it.

I am not afraid to state that M. McDonald is right with some (not all!) of his criticism about "Adventures...", even at the risk of being the only one doing this. However, I rate the book with a 5-star as it has undoubtedly more than one merit. The sheer fact that there is a book explaining the world of IT in an easy-to-read style without using technical jargon is an achievement in itself. The major aspects of a CIO's life are covered and this has been summarized by other reviewers. But there are important shortcomings. At no place is there a word about the fact that a CIO is mainly managing dependency, due to the fact that he deals with an incredibly immature computer/software industry. Faulty software (leading to crashing projects and later to system instability) and unripe technology (with especially dramatic consequences when it comes to IT security) haven't found their way into this book. A corrupted database is not necessarily the consequence of a renaming of a table; a database can achieve corruption all by itself. There's another recently published book (that I somehow prefer) with the similar intention to explain IT to the business: Roeltgen's "IT's hidden face". This one takes a different approach as it doesn't have a story-line but works a lot with descriptive examples. Both books have things in common though: the starting point is an IT department in the financial sector; N. Carr's ideas are widely rejected; "IT is different"; the CIO's job being the most volatile one in the business; a CIO can't do his staff's job by himself, just to name these. "IT's..." proves that these days the IT world can by no means be managed entirely, whereas "Adventures..." makes the reader believe that IT is perfectly manageable by having the right communication, the right governance or by throwing more money at the problem. The example with the DoS is to my opinion described inaccurately (as a life-threatening event for the company) when we all know that these things are daily business and should be managed quite differently than described in the book. Being myself a business executive in the financial industry, I don't think that it can be stated that Barton did an overwhelmingly good job. He was pushed much more than he was driving. "Adventures..." presents an ideal world, taking a somewhat academic approach. But that's fine as long as the reader keeps this in mind, whereas the other book is written by a long-term experienced CIO who describes the day-to-day challenges with concrete examples. It is undoubtedly true that we should head towards a better manageable world in IT, but as long as we have to deal with an immature software industry, this is a dream that will not be achieved soon. "Adventures..." describes exclusively from the perspective of the CIO and his interaction with the business, but leaves out the daily challenges of the ordinary IT staff. "IT's.." offers more details in this respect as it digs much more in the "dirt". In any case, both

This book does a great job detailing the many challenges of running a successful IT department. It reads a lot easier than most computer related books. Taking all the normal complexities inherent in IT departments and aligning them with the overall business strategy is a requirement in today's business world. The authors did a nice job detailing this struggle while also providing a great model for how IT professionals should handle it. The authors do however highlight the large gap and/or deficiency that appear to exist with promoting a career IT employee to the CIO position. In the real world and in this book, I continue to see countless companies turn to non-IT professionals to run the IT department to help render it valid and to re-connect it with the rest of the business. All IT professionals should be required to read this book as part of their career development plan. The IT professionals that figure out how to bridge this gap will be in high demand and be able to put an end to the commoditization of the IT professional that I believe exists in a large portion of today's business world. I highly recommend this book.

Information technology is the new "IT for Management" as Corporate America tries to dig itself out of the gaping leadership hole they've created over the past several years. Without a thorough understanding and application of information technology, Corporate America has little hope of making their organizations the well-oiled machines they used to be back in the good old 20th Century. Authors Austin and Nolan do a wonderful job of guiding even this IT challenged management/employee motivational guru into the wonderful world of today's hyper-paced informational technological environment; where survival of the fittest has nothing to do with having the loaded gun. It's all about maximizing the resources available on the super-highway of technology, where there are no posted speed limits; only unwritten penalties of driving too slowly. For some companies currently on life support, the penalty for not keeping up with IT means they may as well pack it in; they're going nowhere even faster than before. Essentially, these "adventures" clearly and creatively formulate the blueprint for success for any company to follow if they ever want to become leaders in their respective industries. Information technology is a most important tool for business survival, so wake up Corporate America; IT is where it's happening! IT certainly enhances two out of the five "social appetites" previously discussed in a review of Primal Management: Unraveling the Secrets of Human Nature to Drive High Performance; namely, "skill deployment" and "innovation". With the technological capabilities so readily available at our fingetips, this once confusing and blurred world of 21st Century business has become focused, and so much clearer now; even I can read the handwriting on the wall.

I don't think I can add much to Lee Devin's review, but I've never met the authors so maybe that counts for something. I'm a VP in IT Infrastructure at a 250-person financial services firm. I read this book in maybe ten sessions over about three weeks and had trouble putting it down every time. Although clearly targeted at MBA classes (I got mine a few years ago so I know whereof I speak), it had none of the generic "IT management as a theoretical construct" approach that my IT management textbooks swore by. It raised specific, messy, real-world (ok, fictional but realistic) scenarios and, in true Socratic fashion, asked the reader what he or she would do. It provided excerpts of actual third-party reports from analytical firms like Cutter Consortium along with footnotes directing you to the originals. I only wonder if the publisher has any plans to sponsor book-group meetings. I would love to get together with five or ten other aspiring CIOs to discuss the questions, and in fact am considering re-reading the book and treating it as I would a real MBA class, writing out answers to each of the questions proposed just to give myself a chance to think through them more carefully. The authors actually mention that classroom materials are available, though presumably only to professors and the like.