What does it really mean to be a CIO? You sure won't be writing any software any more. You won't be stringing network cables or updating firewall parameters. What does a CIO really do? I've got some bad news for you: CIOs manage.

Sure, we all think that we know what that word means, but when it comes down to what CIOs do on a daily basis, what does this mean? At its very simplest, to manage means to make decisions. Not just any decisions, but the right decisions over and over again. That's why the really good CIOs get paid the big bucks.

How can we learn to make the right management decisions? Judgment calls are a skill that can be learned, you just have to know how to go about doing it. We can look to companies such as Microsoft to get an understanding of how they go about doing it. However, we need to keep in mind that in the world of IT, bigger does not always mean better.

Your company's IT department is built around one thing: information. It's how you collect it, store it, and use it that will determine how successful a CIO you are. This means that you need to be learning from how other companies have accomplished this and you need to be avoiding the mistakes that they have made.

Finally, in the world of IT not all problems are created equally. There is a special breed of problems that we call "wicked" - problems that are so big and so tough that all of our normal management skills generally don't work on them. They require a new way of thinking in order to solve.

This book is going to provide you with the management skills that you are going to need as a CIO in order to be successful. We'll be taking a look at other firms and how they've dealt with management challenges (both successfully and unsuccessfully) and several new approaches that you can use will be revealed.