Basé sur “Être ou ne pas être CTO”, chapitre “Définir la stratégie technique”.

“Notre vision technique ? Euh… on fait du bon code ?” Ce n’est pas une vision.

Voici comment créer une vraie stratégie tech qui guide et inspire.

Framework vision technique

1. Current State (honnête !)

Exemple :
"Monolithe PHP 7.4 (EOL proche)
Déploiements manuels (3h, 30% fail rate)
Tests : 15% coverage
Documentation : Obsolète
Tech debt : Estimé 6 mois dev"

Ne pas sugar-coat. Team et exec doivent connaître réalité.

2. Desired State (3 ans)

Exemple :
"Services découplés, scalables
Déploiements automatisés (15min, 95% success)
Tests : 80% coverage
Documentation à jour
Tech debt gérable (<1 sprint/quarter)"

3. Roadmap (milestones)

Year 1 : Stabilize
- CI/CD pipeline
- Tests coverage 40% → 70%
- Monitoring complet

Year 2 : Modernize
- Extract 3 key services from monolith
- Migrate PHP 7.4 → 8.3
- API Gateway

Year 3 : Scale
- Multi-region deployment
- 99.9% SLA
- Auto-scaling

4. Principles (guide decisions)

Exemples :
1. "Developer experience first"
   → Tools, docs, onboarding = priority

2. "Build vs Buy : Default to buy"
   → Focus differentiation, pas reinvent

3. "Security by design"
   → Not afterthought

4. "Pragmatic > Perfect"
   → Ship fast, iterate

5. "Measure everything"
   → Data-driven decisions

Communiquer la vision

Pour l’équipe tech (détail)

Format : Tech All-Hands (1h)

Structure :
1. Where we are (15min)
   - Honest assessment
   - Wins + Challenges

2. Where we're going (20min)
   - Vision 3 ans
   - Roadmap détaillé

3. How we get there (15min)
   - Principles
   - Expectations

4. Q&A (10min)

Pour les execs (business outcomes)

Format : Exec presentation (30min)

Focus :
- Business impact (pas tech details)
- Risks mitigés
- Investment requis
- Timeline & milestones

Exemple :
"Migration microservices permettra :
- Faster time-to-market (6 semaines → 2 semaines)
- Better scalability (10x capacity)
- Reduced costs (-30% infra long-term)

Investment : 18 mois, 4 engineers

Pour le board (stratégie)

Format : Board deck (10 slides)

Inclure :
- Market/competitive landscape
- Technical strategy alignment business
- Risk management
- Budget & ROI
- Key hires needed

Roadmap : Priorisation

Framework : Impact vs Effort

High Impact, Low Effort : DO NOW
- CI/CD setup
- Monitoring
- Critical security fixes

High Impact, High Effort : PLAN
- Microservices migration
- Data platform
- ML infrastructure

Low Impact, Low Effort : FILL GAPS
- Dependency updates
- Refactoring non-critical

Low Impact, High Effort : AVOID
- Perfect abstractions
- Over-engineering
- Premature optimization

OKRs technique (quarterly)

Q1 2025 :

Objective : "Improve developer velocity"

Key Results :
- KR1 : Deploy frequency 1/week → 3/week
- KR2 : Onboarding time 2 weeks → 3 days
- KR3 : Developer satisfaction 6/10 → 8/10

Initiatives :
- CI/CD pipeline automation
- Onboarding docs rewrite
- Dev environment containerization

Alignment business-tech

Mauvais :

Business wants : Feature X
Tech wants : Refactor Y

→ Disconnect
→ Frustration both sides

Bon :

Business wants : Feature X

CTO : "Pour livrer Feature X rapidement et fiablement,
       on doit d'abord refactor Y (2 semaines).
       
       Sans refactor : 8 semaines + bugs
       Avec refactor : 4 semaines total, stable"

→ Business understands trade-off
→ Tech gets refactor time
→ Win-win

Adapter la vision

Startup (0-50 pers) :

Focus : Speed to market
Vision : Simple, flexible, ship fast
Tech debt : Acceptable court-terme

Scale-up (50-200) :

Focus : Stabilité + Growth
Vision : Balance innovation & reliability
Tech debt : Address systématiquement

Corporate (200+) :

Focus : Governance, scale, security
Vision : Standards, processes, compliance
Tech debt : Program dédié

Mesurer succès vision

Metrics :

Engineering productivity :
- Deploy frequency ↑
- Lead time ↓
- MTTR ↓

Business impact :
- Time to market ↓
- System uptime ↑
- Cost per transaction ↓

Team health :
- Retention ↑
- Satisfaction ↑
- Onboarding time ↓

Conclusion

Vision technique ≠ Liste de technos cool

Vision = Stratégie claire alignée business + Roadmap executable

Checklist : ✅ Current state honest ✅ Desired state inspiring ✅ Roadmap realistic ✅ Principles clear ✅ Communication adapted à audience

“Être ou ne pas être CTO” explore stratégie technique avec templates, cas réels, et interviews CTOs.