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This edition of our Research Journal focuses on the human side of corporate IT – on managing roles, responsibilities, relationships and communications in an environment of ever more sourcing, partnering and collaboration.

We start at the top, with the CIO. The role of the corporate CIO continues to change steadily, and we see the focus shifting to include participation in the strategic direction of the company alongside the delivery of IT services to the business. Brinley Platts and Gordon Watt are leading our research into Expanding the CIO Mandate, and their article suggests some of the ways in which CIOs can extend the range of their strategic responsibilities and raise the level of their contribution to the business. This goal is supported by the following two articles, by Tudor Rees and then Kirt Mead, which provide practical advice on how to think and talk strategically about business and IT.

As IT becomes increasingly central to the mission of most organizations, the possibility that there may not be enough competent people to provide all the services we need makes waves far beyond the IT community. My own article argues that, while we should never be complacent, the IT skills ‘shortage’ is not quite what it seems, because so much is changing – in technology, in business practices, and as a result of globalization. To illustrate how such changes are accommodated, Doug Neal introduces the second edition of our highly successful collaboration guidebook, arguing that a little bit of up-front thinking and planning can help us get more value from the ever-expanding range of communication tools now in use; and Laurence Lock Lee and Cai Kjaer show how the use of Organizational Network Analysis tools can help identify the hidden relationships that drive the real work of most organizations, so that talent can be more effectively identified, nourished and leveraged.

Finally, Richard Sykes shows how the IT profession itself is changing, becoming more specialized and ‘professional’. While Richard writes principally of initiatives in the UK, similar moves are afoot worldwide.

David Moschella
Editor and Global Research Director
dmoschella@csc.com