Management Skills Workshop Saitis Project

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Management Skills WorkshopSaitis Project

• Presenter Neville Nicholas
• 6 March 2000, ITA

PwC
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Management Skills Workshop

• Purpose
• To examine the issues regarding the development
  of management skills and their importance in the
  IT Industry, as well as the adequacy of existing
  management programs and their applicability to
  the South African IT industry will also be
  considered

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This presentation will

• Examine management skills trends in the ICT
  sector
• Examine approaches to management skills
  development in the ICT sector in South Africa and
  internationally
• Assess strengths and challenges of South Africa
  in developing and growing its management skills
  base
• Develop a prioritised list of strategic
  management skills development issues associated
  with the formulation of a South African IT
  Industry Strategy
• Identify specific opportunity areas for
  management skills development as part of a
  broader IT Industry development in South Africa

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Management Skills - Introduction

• Management skills are needed to support and drive
  key elements of IT organisations to provide
• Strategic direction/vision
• Project management
• Project implementation
• Employers are trying to train current employees
  into IT professionals to help fill the demand.

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IT Professionals

• IT professionals operate outside the traditional
  boundaries defined by technical skills.
• They must understand
• enterprise wide business issues
• know specific technologies and architectures
• fluent in the strategy and execution
• be able to manage, and lead people

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International Trends in Management Skills
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Management Skills International Trends -
Availability

• The lack of availability of management skills is
  a major bottleneck in the development of IT
  firms.
• The educational facilities in some countries are
  not able to provide the necessary management
  training skills needed for the IT Industry.
• There is a major effort worldwide to train IT
  business managers, project managers and IT
  systems managers.
• There is also stiff competition to recruit
  experienced managers from around the world
• In Canada, federally funded apprenticeship
  programs have very high drop-out rates (Canada)

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Management Skills International Trends - Demand

• Some countries are noticing a job drain of their
  management professionals as they move to other
  countries with more favourable working conditions
• The demand for skilled IT professionals exceeds
  the supply by approximately 10-30 in some
  countries- these trends will continue into 2001
  (Gartner Group)
• The need for constant upgrading of training
  skills is forcing organisations to evaluate their
  methods and resource commitments on these
  activities

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Management Skills Lack of IT Management
professionals can result in

• Lack of innovative vision and direction
• Loss of competitive edge with the implementation
  of new technologies
• Affect overall growth potential

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Management Skills International Initiatives

• There is a gender gap in IT Professionals - some
  countries have implemented programs to encourage
  women to enter into IT through programs and
  government policy
• Companies are realising the importance of
  continual management skill training for their
  employees.
• Private sector institutions are emerging to offer
  IT Management skills training
• Some countries are increasing immigration of
  foreign workers with specific IT industry skills
• The Government in some countries has acted as a
  catalyst by providing funding for relevant
  management training programs

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Management SkillsPrograms
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Management Skills - Government of Canada

• 50 of IM/IT executives in the Government will
  retire by the year 2002
• the federal government is implementing an IT
  community renewal strategy to address this issue
• This initiative has four pillars
• finding and developing managers and executives
• championing of projects by Heads of IT in
  departments
• aligning with the private sector and with other
  jurisdictions to address this issue and
• fostering exchanges with the private sector.

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Management Skills Programs - Canada

• Certified Advanced Technology Manager (CATM)
  program accredited by the Canadian Advanced
  Technology Alliance (CATA) - curriculum covers
• financial evaluation of technology products
  services
• strategy making in an uncertain global
  environment
• financial measurement and quantifying risk
• technology marketing strategy and product
  management
• marketing technology products services
• embracing change managing in turbulence
• financial and managerial accounting
• project selection and management
• reducing the cycle time of development projects

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Management Skills Programs - Canada

• Mandate to increase the contribution of Canadian
  IT professionals to their business

Council for Information Technology
Professionals Conference Board of Canada
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Management Skills Programs - Canada
Learnsoft Corporation www.learnsoft.ca

• Provides training for IT Professionals
• Executive MBA via the Internet
• Electronic Management Training
• CATM Certification

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Management Skills Programs - Canada
Vitesse Reskilling Canada Inc.
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Management Skills Programs - India

• The Ministry of Information Technology has
  launched various programs
• CEDTI (Centre for Electronic Design and
  Technology in India)
• Electronics Industry Development Project (IMPACT)
  - follow-up projects

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Management Skills Programs - Ireland

• Ireland which has been experienced tremendous
  growth in its IT Industry and has incorporated
  the following management development programs in
  its HR strategy
• Mentorship of SMEs by experienced managers
• RD management assistance

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Management Skills Programs - Europe

• U.S. based hardware suppliers, Cisco and 3Com
  Corp. and software giants such as SAP AG of
  Germany, Oracle Corp. and Microsoft Corp. of the
  U.S. have each rolled out multimillion-dollar
  education initiatives for Europeans of all ages
  in countries from Scotland to Romania
• In less than a year, Cisco has signed up 102
  universities in 18 European countries.
• The program could produce 20,000 new networking
  specialists annually. From this, Cisco expects to
  hire about 10

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Management Skills Programs - Europe

• The UKs Information Age program has the Teaching
  Company Scheme (TCS) which enables firms to take
  advantage of the business management skills
  available at the universities.
• Each project involves one or more graduates
  working in a company for two years on an activity
  which is central to to the company
• The European Union provides funds under its
  European Social Fund for IT related management
  training such as
• The Netherlands entrepreneurship and mentorship
  training program
• The German training the trainer program

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Management Skills Programs - US

• The MIT (Management Institute Training) -
  Information Technology and Business
  Transformation (ITBT) MBA addresses the following
  issues
• management of information systems and/or IT
• experience as a pre-requisite
• strategic planning and marketing
• operations and business processes
• people, organizational design, change management
• emergent information technologies

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Management Skills Programs - US

• Project Management Solutions and Gartner
  Institute launched training initiatives to teach
  project managers how to plan, assess, and manage
  their projects
• Project Management Solutions - WelkomHome
• Gartner Institute - Certification course
• GlobalLearningSystems.com - a web-centric
  corporate IT training and professional
  development approach to IT Management Training
• http//www.managementcourses.com - details 1600
  management courses given in 200 schools in over
  60 countries

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Management Skills Programs - Overcoming the
Gender Gap

• Management Skills Training for Women to assist in
  overcoming the gender gap in management
  positions.
• Womens Technology Cluster in San Francisco
• specific quotas on training programs for women
• mentorship programs ( CWC)

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Strategic management skills development issues
(discussion points to formulate IT Strategy)

• The level of demand for IT Management skills
  versus supply
• The current state of the infrastructure - capable
  of supporting increased training initiatives
• The state of training facilities, government
  sponsored and private (are they meeting the needs
  of IT Management skills)
• Current government policy to assist in training
  management professionals and potential of
  creating such policies.
• What Lifelong learning opportunities are provided
  by employers and training facilities to assist in
  the transition of employees from technical skills
  to management skills.
• The Gender Gap - what programs are their to
  assist in closing the gap - current situation of
  women in IT in South Africa

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Opportunity areas for management skills
development for South Africa

• Increasing enrollment into current management
  skills training facilities
• Encouraging investment in management skills
  training on the part of employers
• Partnerships between the private sector and
  educational facilities to provide relevant
  management training courses
• Incorporating Virtual training initiatives into
  employer training programs
• Initiatives encouraging women to enter in IT and
  assume management roles.
• Improve opportunities to attract professionals
  from other countries?