Stories by Matt Villano

What does it mean when a professor of IT can't practice what he teaches? It means he's doing his job

An IT transformation shouldn't be all about bits and bytes. Take it from Duke Energy's CIO, who used the HR department to put his human capital first.

A newspaper CIO helps an embattled industry survive and thrive in the 21st century.

Looking to get ahead in your career? The best strategy just might be to stay put. While the numbers indicate that CIOs are moving around at a hectic pace, many lament that their only direction is horizontal. If they wish to move up the career ladder, it seems that CIOs first must find executive-level positions outside IT.

On a gray November day in 1997, Ted DellaVecchia, senior vice president and CIO of Capital Blue Cross in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, rallied his troops to talk about teamwork. DellaVecchia had been hired less than two months earlier, commissioned to turn around a struggling IT organisation that was losing almost one-quarter of its employees annually.

With smart software, Turner Industries can estimate down to the last weld. And that's the sweet spot where good IT and good business intersect.

While you're analysing numbers, take a moment to analyse yourself
CIOs have been using metrics to gauge the quality, responsiveness and productivity of their organisations for more than a decade. But as they turn to metrics to make their organisations more cost-effective, they increasingly are realising that metrics can help them do more than just crunch numbers. Used properly, metrics not only can satisfy your colleagues' need to know, but they also can teach you about your IT organisation. Setting up specific metrics can also give you new insight about your office environment-and yourself.

Eileen Strider learned early in her career what it's like to work in a 24/7 IT environment. As an IT staffer with a Midwest defence contractor, overnight systems administrators called Strider on her honeymoon to trouble-shoot a system error.

The notion of backing up valuable resources is nothing new to IS managers and staffers.