Fractional CTO

The developers say one thing, the business hears another.

Between the people who pay and the people who build stands someone who translates. Usually he translates honestly and still loses: one way goes "we'll do it in a month" instead of "in a month, if this doesn't surface"; the other way comes back "we need a button" instead of the task the button followed from.

One person speaks to the business in the language of business, and to the developers and the code in the language of IT. That is the technical owner — not a project manager: he answers for the result, not for tickets moving across a board. Interim CTO, CTO on demand — the market has several names for the role; the difference here is that this one also writes the code.

Decisions are made and written so the next hire can read them. Not minutes of a meeting, but the reason: why this was chosen, what the alternative was, under what condition the decision stops being right.

Promises come with a price. Every deadline names what specifically could break it — before it does.

Ownership comes back to you. The role is temporary by definition. The client sets the term: he decides when he takes the system back. After that I stay a phone call away.

One technical decision instead of two retellings. Written reasons behind the decisions, which stay when I leave. And a team that keeps working after the handover.

A shelf-layout and planogram system for a retail chain — four years of answering for the result and for a team of four, from an empty repository to the daily work of category managers.

In another system, trading equipment, I wrote all the documentation myself. Months have passed since I handed it over, and the architecture still matches the code.

The role came back in banking, in oil and gas, in retail and in trading equipment.

Project management. Boards, statuses and utilisation reports are not this work, and if that is what you need, you need a different person.

And not a permanent position. The role is temporary, and its proper end is the moment you no longer need it.

Name the decision that has been hardest to make, and the person who currently translates between the business and the developers. That pair usually shows everything.