IT Workforce: Balancing Client and Provider Needs

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IT Workforce Balancing Client and Provider Needs

• Christine V. Bullen, Ph.D.
• Stevens Institute of Technology

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Motivation for Studying the IT Workforce

• Consistent top concern of IT management
• Changing times
• Lowered university IT enrollments
• Pending baby boomer retirements
• Migrating skills
• Clients increased use of providers - 2005 study

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Phase 1 Client Firms - 77
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Phase one Clients only Critical Today
Technical orange Business Domain blue
Project Management green
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Mission Change for IT

• From
• Delivering technology-based solutions
• To
• Managing the process of delivering solutions

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Phase 2 Provider Firms

• Total in sample 126
• What capabilities do IT providers seek?
• Not internally, but rather to serve their clients
• Looking at the other side of the question
• Looking at staffing and career patterns in the
  providers around the world
• How do provider responses compare to client
  responses?

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Demographics of Providers

• Geographical Distribution
• North South America 66
• W. Europe, E. Europe/CIS 17
• Australia, India 16
• Revenue
• F500 gt3B 14
• Large 500M-3B 15
• SME lt500M 71

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Client Emerging Skills
Provider Emerging Skills
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Match between Client and Provider Emerging
Capabilities

• Business Domain
• Industry Knowledge
• BPR
• Change Management
• Communication
• Technical
• IT Architecture Standards
• Security
• Project Management
• No exact matches
• Sourcing
• Managing 3PPs

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Client Declining Skills
Provider Declining Skills
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Client Critical Skills
Future Critical 3 Years Hence
Provider Critical Skills
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Hiring Practices

• What is the marketplace demanding in our
  graduates?
• Entry Level data for both clients and providers
• Mid-level data for both clients and providers
• Conclusions regarding requisite skills

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Client Entry Level
Provider Entry Level
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Entry-Level Observations

• Clients rank technical skills high in entry-level
  hires
• Softer skills are also emerging as important
• SPs show a more balanced approach
• Seek technical, project management and industry
  knowledge
• Other than the Project Management Skills, both
  clients and SPs are seeking a mixture of
  technical and business domain skills

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Client Mid Level
Provider Mid Level
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Mid-Level Observations

• Clients and SPs much closer in requirements
• Both showing need for project management skills
• Very different from entry-level
• More closely aligned with critical skills
• Important question is how do entry-level IT
  workers develop mid-level skills

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Skill Category Analysis

• Developed from client data
• Results six categories to date
• Next step is to validate categories with vendor
  data
• Categories begin to provide a framework of
  REQUISITE SKILLS for IT Workers
• Developed using thematic analysis
• Examined skill rankings across questions

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IT Professionals Require a Requisite Set of Skills

• All six categories are important to an IT
  professionals success
• Professionals may choose to focus on a particular
  category or group of categories
• Need some competency in all six if they are to
  grow in their career
• Skills categories are interdependent
• Not mutually exclusive or exhaustive

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Missing Entry Level Skills

• 5 are business domain
• 4 are project mgmt

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IBM Skills for the 21st Century
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Implications for Curriculum and Hiring

• Marketplace both clients and providers
  demanding new patterns of capabilities
• Universities should respond with curriculum
  adjustments
• T-shaped people 2 versions
• Deep technical and broad client-facing skills
  (Developers and Specialists)
• Deep client-facing skills and broad technical
  ones (Analysts and Managers)
• Need for client-facing skills is increasing
  especially in high wage areas
• Project management
• Communication
• Business domain

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How should firms respond?

• Clarify career paths for IT professionals

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Overall Employment - 2Q2008

• Yearly
• Occupation Employed Increase
• Computer/IS Managers 488,000 9.9
• Computer Scientists/Systems Analysts 848,500
  13.4
• Computer Programmers 528,300 -3.6
• Computer Software Engineers 969,500 9.9
• Computer Support Specialists 385,500 15.9
• Database Administrators 98,000 -3.9
• Network/Systems Administrators 230,800 21.4
• Network Systems/DC Analysts 407,300 9.3

Source BLS, Eric Chabrow, CIO Insight
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How Are Career Paths Defined for our young
professionals?

• A plethora of paths
• Technical
• Computer science
• Systems Development
• Infrastructure
• Help Desk
• Managerial
• Project Management
• Systems Analysis
• Requirements Analysis

Confusion!
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What Education is Valuable in the Entry-Level
Hiring Process?

• Computer Science undergraduate degree
• IT undergraduate degree
• Math undergraduate degree
• Music
• Liberal Arts

More confusion!
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What is the purpose of a career path?

• Laying out a logical progression for increasing
  skills that are valuable to the organization
• Providing growth opportunities for individuals
• Making career opportunities visible to employees
• Why is this an issue in IT?

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How should firms respond?

• Define career paths for IT
• Create alternate career paths
• Entry Points examples
• QA/Testing entry point for analysts
• Help Desk/Operations entry point for managers
• Programmers entry point for developers
• Job rotation through functional areas
• Recruit from multiple degrees
• CS predominance is not warranted given skills mix
• Business school IS/IT degrees provide the
  T-shaped person skills

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Future Directions and Issues

• Continue data collection on a regular basis to
  establish longitudinal data set
• Examine the impact of the financial crisis
• Work with industry to design career paths
• Include salary implications
• Map with expectations of Generation Z
• Anticipate retention issues

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What is the Future for the IT Professional?

• Globally Integrated Organizations
• The T-Shaped Person both versions
• IT is still viable valuable option for careers

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ITWF Team 2009

• Christine Bullen, Stevens Institute of Technology
• Keith Frampton, The Marlo Group
• Kevin Gallagher, Northern Kentucky University
• Tim Goles, Texas AM International University
• Steven Hawks, University of Wisconsin - Parkside
• Kate Kaiser, Marquette University
• Judith Simon, University of Memphis
• Cynthia Beath, University of Texas - Austin