Every week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on the new CIO mandate, how to screw up your enterprise mobile app, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Saving the dry lifeless soul of enterprise software
Although enterprise software is pervasive in business, the products and industry tend to be flat, boring, and too often devoid of human expression. The problem is, consumers now expect more. They expect the same level of usability they find in consumer apps. IT departments face a new reality: Create software that users want to use…or risk being bypassed.

The new CIO mandate
CIOs have been under growing tension between two implacable forces: 1) applying the latest technology innovations to the business and 2) maintaining infrastructure and keeping existing IT systems running smoothly. How can CIOs “keep the lights on” while also driving innovation? Here’s one method.

How to screw up your enterprise mobile app
Most enterprise mobile apps have a long way to go before they can be considered great mobile apps. Unfortunately, apps often fail for the same reason over and over, with organizations neglecting to see the problems before it’s too late. Soon, user adoption plummets, shadow apps (those not approved by IT) become commonplace and your business begins to suffer.

3 CIO no-no’s when moving to the cloud
Many CIOs are a bit perplexed when it comes to cloud computing. It’s clearly an industry trend that all CIOs should consider, but the impact on enterprise IT is huge. The risks are big, as is the cost of moving. There are no clear paths, and you have to do some deep thinking around the true value of cloud computing.