Ed Yourdon - CIOs at Work

It's hard to imagine anyone writing a book entirely on his or her owneven a novelist would be hard-pressed to deny the inspiration, support, encouragement, and feedback from friends, neighbors, a spouse, or a significant other. The same is true for textbooks and works of non-fiction; and it's definitely true of this book, CIOs at Work.

The most obvious people for me to acknowledge, of course, are the sixteen individuals whom I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing. Not only did they graciously carve a significant chunk of time out of their schedule in order to share their experience, their insights, and their advice, but they also shared their passion and excitement about the IT industry in which they work and to which they have dedicated a significant part of their professional lives.

Behind each of these CIOs there was at least oneand often two or threeadditional people that I need to acknowledge. First, the administrative assistants who help their bosses organize their schedules and coordinate their interactions with a wide range of people inside and outside their organization. For every e-mail interaction I had with a CIO, I probably had ten with his or her administrative assistant; and without their help, I would never have even reached the point of having a conversation with the CIO. They tend to stay in the background, but play a fairly invisible role; hence, I hope they'll forgive me if I don't mention their names.

There were also several people who helped me identify, locate, and contact the CIOs that I eventually interviewed. The most important of these was my editor, Jessica Belanger, who enthusiastically suggested industries that I had overlooked, companies whose CIOs were likely to be particularly interesting to interview, and clever strategies for tracking down CIOs who often seemed to be doing their level best to remain hidden from sight. Several people at Computer Aid, Inc. were quite helpful in my search for CIOs, including Mike Milutis, Joe Hessmiller, and James Nicol. I also got some much-needed help from Leon Kappelman, Toni Nash, and John Baker, as well as several quasi-anonymous people on Twitterand I am especially grateful for the assistance of @redmamba, who put me in touch with the CIO of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Indeed, the CIOs themselves were of great assistance, often introducing me to their fellow CIO colleagues, or at least telling me how to track them down and get in touch.

When it came to the actual writing of the book, there were three key people who kept me on track and helped keep me from going insane. Kristen Ng did an unbelievably professional (and fast!) job of transcribing the audio recording of each interview into an eminently readable and coherent word-processing document. My editor, Jessica Belanger, worked with me tirelessly to edit several audio conversations into readable English without losing the style, personality, and voice of the CIOs who spoke to me. And Apress' Assistant Publisher, Jeff Pepper, carefully reviewed each chapter and suggested additional questions that would help round out each conversation.

The only hesitation that an author has when it comes to acknowledgments is that he might have unconsciously overlooked someone when compiling the list. There is no doubt that I am guilty of such a sin, as I had numerous conversations and e-mail exchanges with friends, colleagues, and family members throughout the several months that I worked on CIOs at Work. Some of those whom I've inadvertently failed to mention won't even notice the oversight. Some will shrug and I suspect a few will mutter to themselves that I've deliberately slighted them. I apologize in advance to all those individuals and promise that I'll do a better job next time.

Ed Yourdon