The success rate of IT projects can be improved by empowering business unit leaders to become tech innovators, Gartner Vice President Analyst Daniel Sanchez-Reina told a crowd of CIOs and IT leaders on Sept. 10 at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo in Australia.
As he explained, CIOs in Australia have historically struggled to meet objectives: Only 48% of digital projects are currently meeting or exceeding their goals. However, a cohort of top-performing CIOs are achieving at a much higher success rate, with 71% of their projects reaching their targets.
“This distance is huge,” Sanchez-Reina said. “And we are talking about enterprise-wide digital initiatives.”
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He told delegates in Australia that it is possible for any CIO to contribute to this “digital vanguard” and boost digital initiative success rates by co-owning future digital initiatives with heads of businesses.
Co-owning digital projects with business leaders
Gartner compared findings from the largest global study of 3,100 CIOs with survey results from chief experience officers, which Sanchez-Reina defined as business, corporate function, or agency leaders.
The results showed IT leaders overcame “the curse of random success” by “co-owning” digital projects.
“Co-owning means equal fair share of responsibility, equal fair share of accountability, equal fair share of participation,” Sanchez-Reina explained.
In these successful “digital vanguard” organisations, these CXO or business leaders:
- Co-own digital delivery with CIOs from start to finish.
- Allocate 70% more business area staff to technology work for at least part of their time.
Sanchez-Reina said this was not a case of “shadow IT.” Instead, business leaders were being mentored in digital initiatives by CIOs and relied on central CIO involvement to achieve their own success.
“There is no CXO success in digital without CIO success — and the other way around,” he said.
4 steps to reduce the risk of digital project failure
CIOs should consider four effective strategies to increase IT project success rates, according to Sanchez-Reina:
1. Provide easy-to-use platforms for business units
The best CIOs are investing in technologies such as cybersecurity, AI, cloud, and hyper-automation for business areas as well as for IT. These technologies enable potential or current tech producers to more easily access and use digital platforms while also leveraging distributed digital talent, such as younger workers, in business areas.
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“Do you know Gen Z are able to create a landing page using any software you train them in in the blink of an eye?” Sanchez-Reina asked. “But it’s not just Gen Z. Think of people who master exploiting business intelligence to the utmost — they are perfect candidates to develop more complex analytical capabilities.”
2. Boost the architectural awareness of business leaders
CIOs at the digital vanguard are active in teaching business areas beyond IT about what Sanchez-Reina called the “pillars of digital delivery.” This includes aspects of what would usually be considered an IT role, including managing technology vendors, understanding technology costs, and cybersecurity impacts.
In contrast with what CIOs might believe, he emphasized that it is not “too techy.”
“The more you grow digital vanguard CXOs, the more they will want you to give them advice on architectural things like, for example, vendor management,” Sanchez-Reina explained. “They want it 1.6 times more than the rest of CXOs.”
3. Foster innovation leaders across business areas
Sanchez-Reina urged CIOs to make it easier for business areas to spot, incubate, and scale innovation in 2025. He said the top technologies CIOs have deployed or are about to deploy — such as generative AI low-code/no-code platforms — provide a foundation for such innovation efforts in business areas.
According to Gartner data, only 18% of CIOs say they are doing this at the global level. However, Sanchez-Reina noted that as more digital business leaders are developed, they will increasingly seek CIOs’ help in identifying innovation opportunities, supporting AI use cases, and becoming innovation leaders themselves.
4. Support business leaders in digital skills planning
More CIOs at the digital vanguard extend digital skills development planning beyond the boundaries of IT. Gartner’s data shows that currently two-thirds of this leading cohort of CIOs are helping business areas to forecast digital skills needs, compared with just 16% of the rest of global CIOs.
CIOs are helping business units with skills planning and development in technologies that are relevant for their areas, digital leadership, building communities of practice, or AI.
“The more you grow digital vanguard CXOs, the more they will want you to help their staff to develop technical skills,” Sanchez-Reina said.
CIOs deliver more digital initiatives, enjoy their jobs more
There is some good news for CIOs who make the effort to work with business leaders in 2025.
CIOs concerned about the strategic enterprise initiatives in their backlog could end up accelerating time to market and value, according to Sanchez-Reina, which is a key concern for their CEOs.
CIOs in this leading cohort are also more optimistic about their role and enjoy it more. They are less likely to look for other jobs, he noted, and are more likely to recommend a CIO career as an option for friends or family.