Stories by Madeline Weiss, June Drewry

The CIO's role in IT project portfolio governance is well established. The 2004 book IT Governance, by Peter Weill and Jeanne Ross, captured the benefits of effective IT governance: higher return on assets, investments tied to strategic priorities, greater agility and reduced duplication. The principles of IT portfolio governance served as a road map for CIOs in taming what was often the Wild West of IT spending and decision-making in organizations where investments were not necessarily aligned with business strategies and often led to inflated expenses.

Still building your in-house data analytics operation? External providers can supplement your capabilities -- fast.

A pilot program from the Society for Information Management shows the value of taking on a protege from outside your own organisation.

In 2013, IT leaders should tap into the latest research about business transformation, collaboration and innovation, say columnists Madeline Weiss and June Drewry.

To be an entrepreneurial CIO, you'll need to experiment and think about your business in new ways. For example, have you thought about exploiting big data to offer an information service?