CTO as a service: is the CTO an integral part of the project?

CTO (Chief Technical Officer) is an expert who participates in all technical processes of product development, from the choice of a technology stack to the elimination of local problems of developers. Sometimes companies, in order to quickly close this vacancy or save money, resort to a format of cooperation with a Chief Technology Officer called CTO as a Service. Let’s discuss the prospects and need for this type of collaboration below.

What Tasks Does the CTO Perform?

The first responsibility of a CTO role is to supervise the work of the team, direct their activities in the right way, and make sure that all tasks are completed on time. All this is done so that the company can achieve its business goals and optimize the process of working on the project in such a way as to minimize possible risks.

CTO service also includes determining the architecture of the future product, that is, choosing the most successful way to implement the “skeleton” of the project. In the long term, this will provide the project with scalability, and in the short term, it will help save the company money, which, in a negative scenario, can be spent on numerous edits and optimizations.

Another typical task of CTO services for startups is to create and present a development plan that will define the goals of the project and map out the path to achieve them. In particular, a startup CTO builds a technical strategy, as well as sets deadlines and redlines. Sometimes their duties also include the distribution of work tasks between team members.

In addition to all of the above, the CTO service is responsible for providing advice on the implementation of the latest technologies. The fact is that the choice of a stack depends not only on an analysis of the current state of the IT market but also on some other factors, such as the cost of further product support, scalability, etc.

In terms of management and employee training, CTO as a Service can also be useful. Indeed, a competent leader for a technical team is necessary. This should be a person with experience in software development and a large amount of knowledge in this area, who understands what developers talk about and translates all technical points into the language of the client. It is the technical director who is the intermediate link between the world of business and the world of technology.

Finally, a virtual CTO will help you objectively evaluate your team’s productivity by tracking their progress as they work on the project and wisely allocate developer resources. After all, if your software engineers break deadlines with multiple reworks, your competitor can enter the market earlier and take away the lion’s share of your target audience.

Final Thoughts

In general, the responsibilities of a CTO may vary from company to company. Somewhere, a CTO of a startup is focused on technical processes and plays the role of a lead developer, and somewhere they perform the business tasks of the product. One thing remains unchanged: a CTO manages the company’s resources and is responsible for the technical part of the product. Therefore, if you do not want to overpay for a full-time specialist who will take responsibility for performing CTO tasks, you should definitely consider to hire CTO under the CTO as a Service model.