Dear Bob ... I report directly to the CIO. He's somewhat technical, and likes to write code. He has cherry-picked a number of projects for himself. Those projects get executed with no senior IT oversight. Occasionally his code slows or completely brings down our database server. Once he went out of town leaving a buggy version of a mission critical app and no source or other way for us to fix it. (We did create Dear Bob …I report directly to the CIO. He’s somewhat technical, and likes to write code. He has cherry-picked a number of projects for himself.Those projects get executed with no senior IT oversight. Occasionally his code slows or completely brings down our database server. Once he went out of town leaving a buggy version of a mission critical app and no source or other way for us to fix it. (We did create a work-around by manipulating underlying data.) We’ve all heard of the renegade programmer. But what do you do if he’s THE boss?– Reports to the root causeDear Reports … I presume referring you to large individuals who have lots of vowels in their name is beyond the scope of your inquiry. That leaves us with just a small number of options.The best solution is a quiet, private conversation you start by saying, “JUST WHAT EXACTLY DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!!!”Well, maybe not that emphatic. But a private, straightforward conversation is in order, although it should go more like this: “Every time you bypass our controls and put your code directly into production, you send a message to every programmer on the staff that it’s okay to bypass our controls and put their code directly into production, too. If that’s what you want, I’ll disband the Change Control department right now – just tell me. Otherwise, you have to be like Caesar’s Wife – beyond reproach. Does that make sense to you?” If your boss is testy and defensive you might need to add an additional layer of diplomacy. Maybe this: “I need your advice. We have a programmer who refuses to adhere to our testing and change control procedures. On more than one occasion he’s put bad code directly into production, causing data corruption and system performance degradation. What do you think I should do?”The almost-certain answer: “I think you should terminate him, or at least put him on probation.”Your reply (with a large smile on your face): “Okay … you’re on probation.” And to answer the question you might be wanting to ask, yes, this should be a one-on-one conversation to prevent embarrassment. It’s tempting to find safety in numbers, and with some, fully dysfunctional bosses that might be necessary, but in most cases, the old rule that you praise in public and criticize in private wins out.There are only two other alternatives I can see. If you’re sneaky enough, set up shadow systems the CIO thinks are production but really are quarantine.No? That leaves the nuclear option: Going to your boss’s boss. Everyone has a boss – even the CEO, who reports to the board of directors – with the sole exception of sole proprietorships. That gets into the range of whistleblowing, though, and once you start a process like that, there’s no going back. – Bob ——– Technology Industry