The Role of CIO and CTO

Excerpt from Andy Gravvet's 08-Sept article on GovLoop

Chief Information Officer's Role

The primary role of the CIO is to provide policy direction, maintain the IT infrastructure of the organization, ensure proper security measures are followed, and to evaluate and control capital expenditures to facilitate the portfolio management of the organization. The graphic below illustrates a more detailed list of the functions of the CIO. Clinger-Cohen defines the general responsibilities as follows:

"(1) providing advice and other assistance to the head of the executive agency and other senior management personnel of the executive agency to ensure that information technology is acquired and information resources are managed for the executive agency in a manner that implements the policies and procedures of this division, consistent with chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, and the priorities established by the head of the executive agency;

(2) developing, maintaining, and facilitating the implementation of a sound and integrated information technology architecture for the executive agency; and

(3) promoting the effective and efficient design and operation of all major information resources management processes for the executive agency, including improvements to work processes of the executive agency."



Chief Technology Officer's Role

The CTO's responsibility is to provide overall awareness of technologies that can be used to advance the mission of the organization. This role is illustrated in the graphic below and the primary functions of the CTO are described below:

• Emerging Technologies - Must be aware of emerging technologies to select the proper capabilities to infuse into the organization
• Market Assessment - Must be prepared to review the market to find technologies that can most efficiently meet the needs of the agency
• External Relationships - Must work closely with government agencies and private industry to ensure that the government's needs are addressed and that the organization is aware of the latest technological innovations
• Evolving Infrastructure - Agency's infrastructure is constantly changing and the CTO must be aware of these changes and bring technologies to the organization to enhance the agency's capabilities
• Transparency - With the current requirement to increase transparency across the government, the CTO must understand the issues surrounding open government and seek technologies that can be used to enhance agency communications with the public
• Security - Must be aware of security issues and what technologies are available to secure the agency's networks, data, and IT assets

Read the full article: http://www.govloop.com/profiles/blogs/the-roles-of-cios-and-ctos