6 IS/IT Leadership Roles

CSC - Computer Science Corporation (1996) suggested six new IS leadership roles which are required to execute IS's future agenda. These are the following:

1. Chief architect
- designs future business possibilities. The primary work of the chief architect is not to define specific business outcomes but to design and evolve the IT infrastructure so that it will expand the range of future possibilities for the business.

2. Change leader
- orchestrates resources to achieve future optimal implementation. The essential role of the change leader is to organize the resources that will be needed to execute the change program.

3. Product developer
- helps define the company's place in the emerging digital economy.

4. Technology provocateur
- embeds IT into the business strategy. To bear on the formation of strategy for the business, the technology provocateur teams up with senior business executives to bring IT and the realities of the IT marketplace.

5. Coach
- teaches people to acquire the skillsets they will need for the future. The two basic responsibilities of the coach are teaching people how to learn to become self-sufficient, and providing team leaders with staff able to do the IT-related work of the business.

6. Chief operating strategist
- invents the future with senior management. Being the top IS executive, the chief operating strategist is focused on the future agenda of the IS organization.

Taken from a study conducted by Petter Gottschalk "IS/IT Leadership Roles" in Norwegian School of Management