Today’s CIOs face a ticking clock: Every year, according to one estimate, between one-quarter and one-third get the boot. Using the higher rate, that’s a turnover of 50 percent every 21 months. Not much of a honeymoon for them, and a deeply destabilizing fact for the rest of the organization.

What gives?

Though there are no definitive answers, IT industry watchers have identified one problem that seems to run rampant among IT leaders—a lack of “vision,” meaning long-term strategic business thinking.

For the third year, Architecture & Governance Magazine has undertaken a major survey of the IT community to understand its changing perspectives on strategy, process, politics, and the evolving role of the enterprise architect. This year, 401 readers completed the survey over a seven-day period in June. Some of the results were expected—following trends we have observed in years past. But some were quite startling—in particular, the declining relevance of the enterprise architecture process among its more quantifiable brethren.

Surviving—and Thriving—as the CIO for an IT Company

With today’s accelerated business pace, increasing compliance requirements, and ever-changing technologies, the role of the chief information officer has never been more interesting or challenging. That’s especially true if—like me—you’re the CIO of a company that provides IT products or services.

With many IT leaders forced to justify their group’s economic value, it’s more critical than ever to present executive managers with the right measurements for IT’s contributions. But most IT organizations fall short of this objective.

With the dialogue about climate change increasing, businesses look to their CIOs to take action and glean the benefits gained from “doing good” — improved corporate reputation and financial gains.

Today’s CIOs face increased scrutiny of the expense and management of their resources–technologies, processes and people. The mandate to align and deliver agile operational support to the business is as intense as any time in the past 20 years. Failure to succeed often translates into the threat of being outsourced or hosted. CIOs continue to be excluded from the decision-making table, even though everyone recognizes IT’s integral role in every part of the business.

The Role of the CIO.  With IT representing about 70% of all capital expenditures, estimated in total at over $1 trillion dollars per annum, CIOs are expected to “run IT like a business,” maintaining specialized skills and expertise in:

Although enterprise architecture has a loyal following, not everyone embraces it.

Those who believe in the benefits of enterprise architecture champion it vocally. But talk alone won’t convert the skeptics of what some experts say is the best approach to effectively using information technology.

A Spyglass, A Compass and a Good Map - The Executive Guide to IT Governance. Today's CIO is sailing in uncharted waters. Never before in the history of the information age have technology complexity, time to market, and business responsiveness come together so swiftly to form the CIO agenda. The CIO is facing a perfect storm and needs the right tools to not only sail his ship to a safe port but to win the race and return loaded with the treasure the enterprise seeks.