On the role of CTO (Chief Engineer / Technical Director)
I am often asked to define the role of SRT, and I decided to share my thoughts on this issue.
Let's start with who STO is not.
1) STO is not an engineer. This is not the top technological career, not a natural position on the growth path of the engineer. This position is not for those people who like to code, design architecture and develop technical design.
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2) From the first paragraph it follows that the service station will not necessarily be the best engineer of the company.
So who is the SRT, if not the best coder and not the crown of a career engineer?
The problem with the definition of SRT is that if you consider the owners of this position, you will see many different personalities. Some are technical co-founders. Others - from the first engineers. Some started with her, others got promoted. Some became stations after being in charge of development. Someone focuses on people and development processes, hiring. Others are based on application architecture or product development. Someone is the face of the company for the outside world. Someone does not deal with reports, but someone manages the entire development.
The best that can be thought up: SRT is the company's technical leader at the current stage of the company's development. I think otherwise - STO should be a strategic technical executive director, which is required by the company at its current stage.
Strategic: thinking far ahead, and helping to plan the future of the business and the acquisition of what will make this possible.
Executive: to turn strategic plans into reality, breaking the task into pieces and managing the people who will solve it.
So what does SRT do?
First, he must take care and understand the business. He should be able to create a strategy within the technology. STO, first executive director, and then techie. If the service station does not have a place where decisions are made, and does not understand what business problems stand in the way of the company, it will not be able to manage the technology of the company to solve them. STO can identify areas where technology can be used to create new business solutions that are consistent with the company's overall strategy. Or SRT can simply do so that the technology always develops, anticipating and allowing the company and product to develop.
In any case, the service station must understand what the main opportunities and risks are in business and focus on them. If the service station is engaged in hiring, retaining employees, processes, managing people - it means that at the moment these things are very important for the team of techies.
In the correct service stations have the responsibility and influence. This does not mean that they are strongly involved in daily management - but in order to implement a business strategy, you need to properly arrange people to solve problems. STO should protect the techies team from being turned into a simple tool for implementing the ideas of other executive directors. He must take care of the ideas and requests of this team itself.
Difficulties begin when the team grows, and the service stations begin to hire deputies to manage people. Many people transfer all responsibility for managing their deputies, sometimes even refusing reports from their side. It is very difficult to maintain influence and effectiveness when you are not provided with reports.
At my past job, all the top management of techies was a service station in his field. They were very respected and they were very capable technically. They understood the business and technical tasks that they were facing, and often inspired a team of engineers and helped with the hiring of employees.
Their problem was that they rarely watched the work of the teams, because the technology was perceived simply as a tool. They had no strategic influence.
If you are a leader without the ability to influence a business strategy and place people on important tasks, you can at best count on your influence on other executive directors. At worst - just occupy a nominal position. You can not give up responsibility for management, without giving up power.
If STO does not have management rights, it will have to achieve its goals only through influence on the organization. If managers do not put people on tasks that seem important to him, he will be powerless. If you are not in management, you lose the most important power over a business strategy. You have only hope for the good intentions of the organization and your hands.
My advice to those who aspire to the SRT position is to remember that this is work related to business strategy and management. If the business of the company is not interesting for you, if you do not want to take responsibility for the work of a large team of people in the direction of this business, the work of service stations is not for you.
Let's start with who STO is not.
1) STO is not an engineer. This is not the top technological career, not a natural position on the growth path of the engineer. This position is not for those people who like to code, design architecture and develop technical design.
')
2) From the first paragraph it follows that the service station will not necessarily be the best engineer of the company.
So who is the SRT, if not the best coder and not the crown of a career engineer?
The problem with the definition of SRT is that if you consider the owners of this position, you will see many different personalities. Some are technical co-founders. Others - from the first engineers. Some started with her, others got promoted. Some became stations after being in charge of development. Someone focuses on people and development processes, hiring. Others are based on application architecture or product development. Someone is the face of the company for the outside world. Someone does not deal with reports, but someone manages the entire development.
The best that can be thought up: SRT is the company's technical leader at the current stage of the company's development. I think otherwise - STO should be a strategic technical executive director, which is required by the company at its current stage.
Strategic: thinking far ahead, and helping to plan the future of the business and the acquisition of what will make this possible.
Executive: to turn strategic plans into reality, breaking the task into pieces and managing the people who will solve it.
So what does SRT do?
First, he must take care and understand the business. He should be able to create a strategy within the technology. STO, first executive director, and then techie. If the service station does not have a place where decisions are made, and does not understand what business problems stand in the way of the company, it will not be able to manage the technology of the company to solve them. STO can identify areas where technology can be used to create new business solutions that are consistent with the company's overall strategy. Or SRT can simply do so that the technology always develops, anticipating and allowing the company and product to develop.
In any case, the service station must understand what the main opportunities and risks are in business and focus on them. If the service station is engaged in hiring, retaining employees, processes, managing people - it means that at the moment these things are very important for the team of techies.
In the correct service stations have the responsibility and influence. This does not mean that they are strongly involved in daily management - but in order to implement a business strategy, you need to properly arrange people to solve problems. STO should protect the techies team from being turned into a simple tool for implementing the ideas of other executive directors. He must take care of the ideas and requests of this team itself.
Difficulties begin when the team grows, and the service stations begin to hire deputies to manage people. Many people transfer all responsibility for managing their deputies, sometimes even refusing reports from their side. It is very difficult to maintain influence and effectiveness when you are not provided with reports.
At my past job, all the top management of techies was a service station in his field. They were very respected and they were very capable technically. They understood the business and technical tasks that they were facing, and often inspired a team of engineers and helped with the hiring of employees.
Their problem was that they rarely watched the work of the teams, because the technology was perceived simply as a tool. They had no strategic influence.
If you are a leader without the ability to influence a business strategy and place people on important tasks, you can at best count on your influence on other executive directors. At worst - just occupy a nominal position. You can not give up responsibility for management, without giving up power.
If STO does not have management rights, it will have to achieve its goals only through influence on the organization. If managers do not put people on tasks that seem important to him, he will be powerless. If you are not in management, you lose the most important power over a business strategy. You have only hope for the good intentions of the organization and your hands.
My advice to those who aspire to the SRT position is to remember that this is work related to business strategy and management. If the business of the company is not interesting for you, if you do not want to take responsibility for the work of a large team of people in the direction of this business, the work of service stations is not for you.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/286550/
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