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Product Description Agile, Lean, and DevOps approaches are radical game changers, providing a fundamentally different way to think about how IT fits into the enterprise, how IT leaders lead, and how IT can harness technology to accomplish the objectives of the enterprise. But honest and open conversations are not taking place between management and Agile delivery teams. In A Seat at the Table, CIO Mark Schwartz explores the role of IT leadership as it is now and opens the door to reveal IT leadership as it should be―an integral part of the value creation engine. With an easy style, Schwartz reveals that the only way to become an Agile IT leader is to be courageous―to throw off the attitude and assumptions that have kept CIOs from taking their rightful seat at the table. CIOs, step on up, your seat at the table is waiting for you. Review Mark Schwartz is a rare combination: a deep thinker who has also applied lean, Agile, and DevOps principles at the highest level, leading an extraordinary Agile transformation in the US Federal Government at USCIS. In this book, he shows how modern IT lead-ers succeed by driving business outcomes rather than operating an order-taking function. This shift in organizational mindset is critical to any successful technology transformation but requires substantial changes in behavior at every level, and Mark's thorough analysis will prove invaluable to leaders who must execute it. -- Jez Humble, CTO, DevOps Research & Assessment LLC This book should be required reading for all technology and business leaders who are serious about digital transformation. It takes you on a provocative, fun, and comprehensive tour of the key areas that will promote and ignite agility, creativity, learning, community, and collaboration. This book may be about taking a seat, but this is no time to be sitting still! IT leaders will be convinced that their job is now about incentivizing and inspiring courage, passion, and technical excellence in service of business objectives rather than blindly servicing requirements. You will find practical advice on how to deal with projects, scope creep, IT assets, governance, security, risk management, quality, and shadow IT. -- Jason Cox, Director of Platform Engineering & SRE In his first book, The Art of Business Value, Mark brought together aunique understanding of modern techniques―Agile, DevOps, andContinuous Delivery. In A Seat at the Table he grabs hold of theseconcepts and disrupts the conventional dynamics around the role ofthe CIO in any organization. His progressive thinking is unmatchedand a must read for leadership and practitioners of all kinds. -- Luke McCormack, former CIO of the Department of Homeland Security High-performing organizations see technology as a strategic capabilityof their business. The walls, inertia, and confusion of seats, sides,and responsibilities does not exist for them. Yet many organizationsstill retain legacy mind-sets and behaviors that limit their opportunitiesto improve, innovate, and inspire their people. Mark shows thesteps needed to break free of these challenges and unlock potential,speed, and growth. His advice is pragmatic, practical, and to the point. -- Barry O'Reilly, Business Advisor, Entrepreneur, Author of Unlearn and Co-Author of Lean Enterprise “Agile” is more than a new software development practice; it is a newway to think, engage, and lead. As Mark Schwartz points out in hiscompelling new book, A Seat at the Table, when CIOs re-conceptualizetheir role based on Agile principles, they will stop worrying about havinga seat at the table, and start realizing all of the full potential of IT. -- Martha Heller, CEO of Heller Search Associates and author of Be the Business: CIOs in the New Era of IT I use to feel guilty when someone would ask me how do I get my leader-ship to understand DevOps if they refuse to accept it. My answer was, basically, you can't. Now I can give them a copy of A Seat at the Table. -- John Willi