Challenges Facing Technology Executives And Their Teams
Technology leaders face sustained pressure to deliver value, modernize for AI, govern at speed, and maintain trust — all amid persistent volatility and budget scrutiny.
- AI expectations outpace readiness, governance, and measurement capabilities.
- Structural volatility disrupts long‑term planning and operating models.
- Cost optimization collides with funding modernization and AI investments.
- Security, privacy, and regulatory demands intensify alongside innovation.
- Trust erodes between technology, business partners, and teams.
To succeed, technology leaders must reset expectations, prove value continuously, and build adaptive governance and operating models that hold under pressure.
Hear Vice President and Principal Analyst Ted Schadler discuss some of the biggest challenges clients come to Forrester with today.
of technology decision-makers prioritize stronger cross-organization IT collaboration.
of technology decision-makers prioritize data-driven optimization of technology operations.
of security decision-makers cite strengthening governance as a top priority.
Get Trusted Insights, Designed For Tech Leaders
Top resources for technology professionals, sent straight to your inbox.
Make Technology Decisions With Confidence
Technology strategy now demands continuous alignment to business value, not static plans. AI disruption, regulatory complexity, and financial pressure raise the cost of misalignment. Forrester frameworks help technology leaders anchor strategy in measurable value, orchestrate shared accountability, and build governance systems that enable speed without sacrificing trust. Together, they connect strategy, execution, finance, architecture, and governance into a resilient decision system.
Anchor Technology To Business Results
The High‑Performance IT Framework helps technology leaders use business and customer value as the North Star for technology strategy. It shows how to continuously align strategy, portfolio decisions, architecture, finance, and governance to deliver measurable business results. By operating technology as a value cocreation system, leaders can adapt to change, prove impact, and sustain trust while navigating AI disruption, volatility, and cost pressure.
Build Adaptive Governance That Holds
Forrester’s research on the essentials of governance positions governance as a strategic enabler, not a constraint. It provides a cohesive system for defining decision rights, embedding controls, and continuously monitoring performance across domains such as AI, data, cloud, and risk. Technology leaders use this guidance to scale innovation, reduce friction, and maintain trust even as volatility and regulatory demands increase.
Questions We Answer
Common Technology Leader Questions That Forrester Helps Answer
For many technology leaders, the pressure to deliver real, measurable results from AI and broader technology investments has intensified sharply. Expectations from boards and business leaders are high, yet many organizations are still working through gaps in strategy alignment, governance, and measurement. As AI moves from experimentation to enterprise scale, leaders must reset expectations, link initiatives directly to business outcomes, and demonstrate progress with credible metrics that build trust across the organization.
Technology leaders are navigating a growing collision between innovation and control. AI adoption, expanding regulatory requirements, and geopolitical uncertainty demand stronger governance, but traditional models are too slow and rigid for today’s pace of change. Leaders must design governance systems that operate continuously, embed decision-making into daily workflows, and reinforce the right behaviors under pressure — enabling teams to move fast while managing risk and maintaining confidence with stakeholders.
In 2026 and beyond, technology leaders will be expected to recalibrate investments under tighter financial scrutiny while still funding AI readiness, modernization, and resilience. Cost optimization is no longer a one‑time exercise; it is an ongoing discipline that requires portfolio-level visibility and value‑based trade‑offs. Leaders must balance near‑term efficiency with long‑term capability building, ensuring that every dollar spent supports business priorities and positions the organization to adapt to continued volatility.
AI Isn’t A Hardware Contest — It’s A Human Test
Most orgs get less than 50% ROI on AI. See how people, skills, operating models, and culture — not more tech — unlock the value your AI investments are missing.
Forrester Decisions for Technology Executives
Forrester Decisions provides continuous, role-specific guidance to help technology executives make better decisions faster — combining research, tools, and analyst expertise to support strategy, governance, and execution across the enterprise.
What’s Included In This Service
Forrester Decisions services are uniquely built to give you strategic insights for your role as a business leader in your organization and help you deliver on your functional role as a division or department leader. Here’s what’s inside:
Insights
Shape strategy, guide transformational change, and stay ahead of the curve with leading research and insights.
- Customer obsession research
- Customer insights
- Trends and predictions
- Market forecasts
- Industry highlights
- Planning guides
- Technology and service provider landscapes
- Forrester Wave™ evaluations
Tools
Empower your team to conquer your priorities with proven strategic models and plug-and-play templates.
- KPIs and peer benchmarks
- Assessments
- Strategic models and frameworks
- Execution tools and templates
- Forrester Wave™ evaluations for your function
- Certification courses
Guidance
Accelerate progress and de-risk decisions with expert advice and hands-on support tailored to you and your team.
- Guidance sessions
- Peer discussions
- Event attendance
- Client webinars
- Dedicated relationship management
Forrester AI Where You Work
Powered by generative AI, Forrester AI helps clients make progress on their top initiatives faster, with trusted answers from Forrester research. Get AI-powered insights and advice from Forrester directly in the tools you use every day.
Support For Technology Leaders And Their Teams
Forrester supports technology leaders and their teams with research, tools, and guidance designed to scale across roles, enabling consistent decision-making, shared accountability, and faster execution.
Executive Leader
Leverage support from a trusted partner and former executive who understands your challenges and supports your strategic agenda every step of the way. Availability may vary by geographic region.
Leader
Procure deep expertise across your functional discipline through expert-led guidance sessions that help you apply unique research, tools, and data to your specific needs.
Team
Develop a common language and toolset to strengthen your team’s expertise and skills with access to relevant certification courses and insights.
AI Access
Equip everyone in your organization to get trusted advice fast through AI in a flexible self-service model.
Key Benefits For Technology Leaders
Technology leaders use Forrester to navigate volatility while delivering durable business results. Our tailored research services provide leading insights, proven tools, and continuous guidance to de-risk decisions and accelerate growth.
- Align technology strategy to broader business goals.
- Govern AI, risk, and compliance without slowing innovation.
- Optimize spend while funding modernization and AI readiness.
- Build adaptive operating models that respond to constant change.
- Strengthen trust with business partners and stakeholders.
- Reinforce governance behaviors that hold under pressure.
What Our Clients Are Saying
City Of Pittsburgh Cuts Cybersecurity Insurance Premiums With Forrester’s Help
Watch the City Of Pittsburgh’s CISO describe how she worked with Forrester to reduce the city’s cybersecurity insurance premiums and cut its deductible in half.
How Oracle And Forrester Tackled DORA Compliance Together
Learn how Forrester helped Northern Trust identify the security architecture models that aligned to its goals.
Technology Spend Benchmarking Helps Insurance CIO Budget With Confidence
Learn how the CIO of Toa Reinsurance uses Forrester’s technology spend benchmarking data to deliver his annual budget to the executive team with confidence.
From Tactical To Strategic: How The City Of Pittsburgh’s IT Team Is Preparing For The Future
Municipal IT departments are typically very tactical by nature. Learn how the City of Pittsburgh’s CIO was able to coach her leadership team to build long-term strategic IT plans with Forrester’s help.
Upcoming Events For Technology And Security Leaders
Explore Related Technology Leadership Roles
Technology executives work alongside leaders across architecture, delivery, data, and analytics. Forrester offers dedicated guidance for these closely aligned roles and their distinct decision needs.
Tech Architecture And Delivery Leaders
For leaders turning strategy into scalable platforms and reliable delivery, this guidance supports modern architectures, technical debt management, and faster delivery without sacrificing resilience.
Data, AI, And Analytics Leaders
For leaders responsible for converting data and AI investments into trusted insights and business outcomes, this guidance supports responsible governance, AI scale, and stronger business partnership.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Forrester Decisions for Technology Executives designed for?
It’s built for senior technology leaders responsible for aligning technology strategy to business outcomes, modernizing platforms for the AI era, governing risk at speed, and sustaining trust across the enterprise. This includes CIOs, CTOs, chief digital officers, and other leaders accountable for enterprise architecture, technology investment decisions, and operating model performance.
Whether you are a technology leader or lead teams that support one, Forrester Decisions helps you make confident decisions that balance innovation, resilience, and measurable business value.
What topics and priorities does this service cover?
Our research spans the full range of priorities facing technology leaders — from setting technology strategy and managing portfolios to modernizing infrastructure, governing AI, optimizing spend, and strengthening security and resilience. It also addresses enterprisewide challenges such as operating‑model adaptability, value realization, and stakeholder alignment.
As technology becomes inseparable from business strategy, this service supports leaders navigating constant change and rising expectations.
What resources are included in this service?
Forrester clients gain access to leading research, data, planning guides, maturity assessments, templates, forecasts, and analyst guidance designed to de‑risk complex decisions. Clients also receive access to Forrester AI, our generative AI tool, which surfaces trusted Forrester insights directly in their workflows.
These resources are designed to support both long‑term strategic planning and day‑to‑day leader decision‑making.
How does Forrester Decisions help technology leaders deliver sustained results?
Forrester Decisions helps technology leaders operate technology as a continuous value system — connecting strategy, portfolio decisions, architecture, finance, and governance. Our frameworks and tools support leaders as they adapt to volatility, recalibrate investments, and reinforce behaviors that hold under pressure.
From high‑performance IT to governance and value‑driven strategy frameworks, Forrester is on your side and by your side as you work to deliver durable business results through technology.
Meet Our Technology Analysts
Insights
Agentic AI Enters Its Enterprise Execution Era
Strategy: Some Assembly Required (Part 1)
Celonis Buys Ikigai Labs To Provide The Context Engine For Enterprisewide AI Adoption
Trust, Modernize, Transcend: What I Took Away From Temenos Community Forum 2026
Talk To Us
Get in touch to learn how Forrester can help with your technology challenges.