A look at the IT Professional
In my last blog entry, I talked about the new professional and what that person looks like. Lets just take a slice of the model and just look at the IT professional. There has been a shift from a traditional IT professional who just was a programmer, developer, technician, etc to an one that is an architect. If you look at the graphic below, you will see the changes which I will explain shortly.
In the bottom right hand corner of the graphic, you will see where the traditional IT professionals exist. Now, I have not included all of them just a small sample. You will also see the line that goes between the business axis and the technology axis. Today, IT professionals need to have more than just technical skills. They need to have the business and soft skills necessary to be successful. They need to learn to straddle the fence between business and technology. That line between technology and business is where architecture sits. Architecture is about delivering enterprise systems solutions to businesses. Architecture is the holistic systems view of how the technology fits into the business. I also listed some sample job roles along the axis to show the new kinds of roles in a purely technical sense that exist. In a two-dimensional view, you will have a super-techie who understand the business and also deeply understands the technology. This professional delivers solutions to customers and clients based on their needs. This is a simplistic view and one that has changed even more. The whole reason for the third dimension is the architecture line is not as simple as portrayed here. There is another dimension that is of critical importance today. You will find that the new professional must have a deep technical background but also a deep background in the context as we will explore in another entry. Now, do not think there is not a career progression here. There is but we must educate the upcoming professionals to understand what they will need to be successful in the future marketplace. A professional may start at one end of either the business or technology spectrum but over time they must either gain more business acumen or more technical acumen to be successful.
