5 Things That CTOs and Software Developers Can Learn From Each Other

Effective collaboration between CTO and developers is the key to the success of your IT project. Both sides have different perspectives on the business, and knowing these differences helps create a broader perspective.

In this article, you will find the 5 most important things that CTOs and software developers can learn from each other. Enjoy your reading!

1. A perspective on a project

Developers are often focused on a specific task, such as creating a particular system function. Their duties include ensuring that the code is of good quality and that the solution meets the specified requirements. However, unlike the CTO, they are not always interested in how the entire project will work beyond their responsibility. It is a mistake because it doesn’t allow them to see many important issues from a company or customer perspective.

However, it works the other way as well. CTOs who care about the overall project’s success can sometimes struggle to understand the issues and challenges faced by individual employees. What is the solution? First of all, it should be good communication and trying to understand the other side. Additionally, planning work and having regular status meetings to discuss mutual goals, challenges, and possible obstacles will also help.

2. Focus on the business mission

Even the most creative feature that looks great for developers and other tech geeks can be inconsistent with the company’s business mission. Before a programmer performs any task, he should know why he is doing it and how it will affect the whole project.

Therefore, to not waste work and energy, the developers should ask “why” before they do a particular thing and know the solution’s business value.

On the other hand, as a CTO, you shouldn’t be closed to new ideas. If it turns out that the proposed solution can positively influence the project’s development and is consistent with the company’s mission — do not block the ideas. It would be best if you appreciate the employees for their out-of-the-box thinking.

3. Care for safety issues

Unfortunately, in both CTO and developer jobs, some tasks are not among their favourites. One of them may be security issues. While the role of a CTO requires constant attention to these matters, developers are often reluctant to approach this topic. Here again, the solution is to try to see a big picture of the project. As a developer, you need to be aware of how important security issues are from the perspective of the entire company and how much damage could be done if any irregularities were to appear.

The CTO’s role is to make the software development team aware of the importance of security issues and the consequences of improper actions.

4. Forward-thinking

Have you found a tool, framework, library that can significantly speed up your work on a particular solution? Sounds great, but have you thought about what impact it will have on the further development of your application? Even the best solutions may have some limitations on further actions. Not only the technical leaders but also developers should think ahead and analyze their choices well in this regard.

On the other hand, that doesn’t mean that the CTO should be closed to new ideas and tools that can actually make the job effective. The key here is to carefully analyze the pros and cons of further product development plans and company mission.

5. A job well done is never lost

As a developer, have you ever created a feature that was ultimately not implemented due to a change in company strategy? It can be frustrating because you may feel that you “wasted” a lot of your time in vain. But it’s not true! Don’t forget how many things you learned during that time. Time to grow and learn is never wasted, and this is something that both CTO and every software development team member should know.

Although sometimes things can look completely different from the perspective of a developer and a CTO, it is essential to try to understand the needs of the other side, help and inspire each other. The key is good communication, which can be more powerful than we think.

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