First you were manager of data processing, then director of MIS, then CIO. Over the years, the focus of IT managers shifted from running payroll systems to automating management information to optimizing business processes.

As the CIO emerged in the 1980s, IT managers were advised to "align IT with the business," "think strategically" and "get a seat at the business (or boardroom) table."

Many CIOs have done just that. But that's not the end. Some of the pundits in Computerworld 's "Future of IT" stories a year ago predicted that IT managers as we know them today will eventually disappear, subsumed into the ranks of general business management.