IT Skilling Seminar

Kate Kaiser presents a paper titled, "The Information Technology Workforce: Trends and Implications 2005-2008." A submission to MIS Quarterly Executive it presents the work carried out in 2005, by a team of researchers sponsored by the SIM Advocacy program to survey senior executives in IT departments about their current and future skill requirements. This paper presents the results of that survey: More organizations are increasing their in-house IT staffs than are decreasing them. The use of offshore workers is increasing, but mainly via domestically headquartered providers. IT executives see business and project management skills as the most critical to own, and they seek these skills in their mid-level hires. Technical skills are more likely to be outsourced, but they are also sought in entry-level hires. The study raises questions about how to transform technically-skilled entry-level hires into mid-level IT managers with strong business and project management skills.