Congratulations! You have graduated with an IT degree and have stepped into the tech industry. Your dream is to reach the top of the food chain and become a chief technology officer. Yes, it might take years or even decades for you to get there but it is your ultimate goal. Did you know what challenges you might encounter when you reach there? What will be your responsibilities when you reach there? No, right.

Chief technology officer not only develops the company’s tech strategy but also ensures that technologies are used securely efficiently and in a profitable manner. They also must oversee new technology implementation as well as evaluate the current systems and technology infrastructure. 

Chief Technology Officers act as a bridge between business and technology so they are always trying to create a mutual understanding between the two functional units, which is easier said than done. Lack of trust, poor productivity, management issues are other challenges they face on a regular basis. Talent shortfall in the cybersecurity industry makes it tough for them to hire the right talent. Shrinking budgets force them to prioritize your spending.

The growing number of remote workers and the number of devices connecting to the network pose a security threat. The increasing complexity and number of cybersecurity attacks targeting businesses do not help either. With so many balls to juggle simultaneously, CTOs expect their development team to support them. 

Here are some of the things that CTOs want their development team to understand.

  1. Stay Focused on The Mission

When developers are working on a large and complex project, they tend to move away from the mission. The more features they add, the lesser they think about how these features would serve their business goals. This can also divert CTOs away from business objectives. That is why it is important for developers to ask themselves “Why” questions before adding any feature and don’t just add features for the sake of adding features.

  1. They Create Strategy, Not Code

Development teams need to understand that CTOs work is strategic in nature, not software engineering or coding oriented. Kevin Goldsmith, Chief Technology Officer at Avvo summed it up brilliantly when he said, “People don’t understand how little of my time is spent on technology. They would be shocked at how much of it is spent in Excel going over business numbers, or in meetings. 

Even when CTOs do not do strategic work, they do not write code. Instead, they spend time in

  • Mentoring the development team
  • Working with stakeholders and other functional units of the organization
  • Making sure that the company is using the best practices

CTOs want their development team to understand this so they can communicate in a better way and have fruitful discussions.

  1. Always Look at the Big Picture

Developers are usually after short-term gains and quick wins which detracts them from the CTO’s long-term vision. They fail to look at the big picture like their CTO does. Yes, their roles are different, but you need to do a collective team effort to plan and execute your tech strategy perfectly. If your development team and CTOs are moving in different directions and have different perspectives, things will not go according to the plan.

  1. Prioritize Security

Security is one of the last things on a developer’s mind when writing code for software or apps. Due to this, they end up creating software that contains security vulnerabilities, which can easily be exploited by cyber attackers. It is important for developers to create software with security in mind. They should follow best coding practices and integrate security features into the app or software they create. This might seem trivial but can make a huge impact on security of your software. The development team should fix all the security issues before it is too late.

  1. Do Not Rely Solely on Frameworks

Do not get me wrong, the framework has its advantages. It can boost the productivity and efficiency of your development team, delivers exceptional community support and is much more secure and cost-effective. That is why most businesses rely heavily on their frameworks for software, app and web development services.

Unfortunately, they do not realize that these frameworks also impose many restrictions and limitations. For instance, you can not change the core behavior of the framework and strictly follow the rules. Your development team will have to adjust their processes to make them compatible with the framework. Even if you want to use the framework, make sure you do not solely rely on it and choose the right framework according to your business needs.

  1. Understand Both the Problem and Product

Top CTOs want their software development team to think like they are developing a product not just writing code for a software. This shift in mindset can help developers better understand the constraints, which you cannot pick by looking at a logical structure diagram or feature document. The more context developers have about the product goals, the better prepared they will be to deal with those constraints. Good CTOs provide their development team with that context so they can make right decisions.

  1. Wasted Code is not as Bad as You Might Think

There is nothing worse a developer than to see their written code being rejected especially when it was created for a new feature or project. While sharing his experience, Eric Lee, Chief Technology Officer at Left Field Labs said, “I have poured my heart into apps and games and gone through painstakingly detailed QA, only to not launch because of a last-minute change to strategy.” 

How do you manage your development team as a CTO? Let us know in the comments section below.