Should CTOs Code & How Does the Role Evolve in a Growing Company?
What Is a CTO and responsibilities?
In today’s business marketplace, organizations need to stay ahead of technology trends to drive growth. For this reason, the CTO is considered one of the most essential executive roles. The CTO meaning is an acronym and stands for “Chief Technology Officer.” Their role is to oversee and lead the technological and scientific initiatives and challenges within their company.
Many software developers consider it the pinnacle position of their career field and aspire to lead their own group of IT professionals through the next frontier in code. These hopeful experts must work to hone their own dynamic skill set, since the number of tech startups has skyrocketed in recent years – and the CTO must wear different strategic and operational hats to stay competitive and ensure the success of his or her team.
What Does a CTO Do and what are their responsibilities?
The Chief Technology Officer juggles a variety of duties and expectations. Whether it’s for a firm large or small, standard CTO responsibilities include:
1. Development project management. The qualified CTO has extensive experience working on complex development projects. They are also adept at managing deadlines, delegating tasks, and creating project roadmaps. They use these skills to help their IT team generate the firm’s product strategy and design. They are also responsible for assigning specific tasks to each staff member and making sure projects stay on track.
2. Technology strategy. In order to serve their customers and stay competitive, it’s critical for all businesses to have the best technology tools available. A focus on digital transformation worldwide means the CTO must be adept at selecting the most efficient IT platforms and employing agile, lean development practices.
3. Business strategy. Every enterprise from the startup to the established corporation relies heavily upon technology to reach consumers and scale their business practices. It is up to the CTO to guide the CEO and their stakeholders, so they can fulfill their goals.
4. Human resources management. To effectively scale a team, a CTO needs to take the time to train their IT professionals on their company’s business culture and customer expectations. They must also keep them up to date on the latest standards in development and delegate the right team leads that will step in and provide leadership and team management assistance as necessary.
5. Product evangelism. A CTO is the premier product expert and enthusiast for their business. As an executive, they are also expected to be a public face in the company. Obligations include representing the enterprise and their products in public appearances, including interviews, press conferences, and seminars.
Should CTOs Know How to Code?
Since most of a Chief Technology Officer’s job involves high-level leadership and management activities, the question remains: Should the CTO code? While their foremost duty is to make technology work properly to meet business goals, they must still have a command of technical needs, including best practices in development, coding trends, and security updates.
The executive probably won’t code on a daily basis, but still needs to keep their skills up to date to know how to make the best development decisions for their company. Regular practice also helps them offer meaningful mentorship to their team members.
Whether you are a CTO who needs experienced developers to design innovative products for your company, or a CEO who is looking for support for your technology staff, hiring a multidisciplinary nearshore software team can help you tackle your company’s most important operational tasks, stay in line with digital innovation, and grow your business.
Our software development teams at iTexico offer a delivery approach designed to integrate with your team’s capacity, competencies, and culture, so you are never challenged with harnessing the right skills or meeting quality requirements. For information about how we deliver virtually, at your site, or at one of our delivery centers, visit our website.
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iTexico is devoted to providing multidisciplinary software development teams as a service for Mobile, Web, and Cloud. We provide end-to-end design, development, testing, devops, and support services by leveraging an innovative Nearshore+ delivery model. With its headquarters in Austin, TX, and wholly-owned delivery centers in Guadalajara and Aguascalientes, Mexico, iTexico has experienced steady growth every year for the last 7 years serving startup, growth, mid-market, and enterprise technology-driven companies, including Carbon Black, ESRI, Microsoft, Integral Ad Science, HomeAway, and others. For more information, please visit http://www.itexico.com.
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