The rock star in the computer room
This is a guest post from Ade McCormack
How many IT people do you see holding court at parties? How many of us hope to be seated next to a technical architect on our next flight?
Introduce yourself as an IT person at a party (I know, I’ve done this) and they all start telling stories about how IT has let them down. When you try to defend the IT industry by explaining that there are, for example, limitations to IP addressing, or that distributed databases lack mathematical rigor, they just laugh, if they’re even listening at all.
Such encounters create resentment, and drive many IT people deeper into their hardened emotional shell. The move to offshoring has reinforced the perception that IT is a commodity. The value IT delivers would appear not to come from the people who build and support IT systems.
But what if tomorrow’s IT people became the new rock stars, or at least the new business “Masters of the Universe”? What if the IT person became a hybrid-business technologist, with an impressive combination of technology skill and business savvy?
Imagine an IT department made up of these IT rock stars. Business people would love them for their ability to hone technology into business advantage. IT would no longer be a technology rest-home for the business-indifferent.
That day is coming. However, the reality is that the nerds will not one day “inherit the Earth.” Nerds, geeks, propeller heads, call them (us) what you will, are the result of a Darwinian split that came about with the birth of the first IT systems. These people were an “evolutionary” step from the mathematical sciences genus; mainly physicists and mathematicians who were attracted by the potential power of these “super-calculators” (aka mainframes).
The sophistication of the computers coupled with the unsophistication of the tools literally required rocket scientists to use them. But the tools today are much more sophisticated, and increasingly business-oriented.
Still, Darwinism has yet to take effect on the people side. The future of IT, it would appear, rests in the hands of hiring managers and recruitment agencies that need to place a greater focus on the business acumen of IT recruits. Choose these carefully and reward them well. They will determine your share price.
Ade McCormack is the author of The IT Value Stack - A Boardroom Guide to IT Leadership (Wiley, 2008). For more information and to download the first two chapters visit Ade McCormack’s blog.
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POSTED IN: guest posts, web/tech
4 opinions for The rock star in the computer room
The rock star in the computer room
May 16, 2008 at 4:40 am
[…] Robert Palmer wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe sophistication of the computers coupled with the unsophistication of the tools literally required rocket scientists to use them. But the tools today are much more sophisticated, and increasingly business-oriented. … […]
Anthony
May 16, 2008 at 5:07 am
Long live the “hybrid-business technologist”. These individuals will be able to leverage technology to streamline organizational overhead. This is the missing link to most IT departments (an the whole industry). This is another reason more and more jobs are be outsourced. Outsource the grunt work, keep the value add!
Alik | PracticeThis.com
May 17, 2008 at 9:34 am
Excellent article!
I witness myself that folks speak different languages in the field. IT means different things to different people. Once people start speak the same language according to the context – biz, IT, end users, devs – the IT would stop to be nerdland. This time is nearly now, I witness it on daily basis as the demand for the common language grows exponentially.
alikl
Ade McCormack
May 22, 2008 at 9:46 am
Alik and Anthony - I am delighted that the article resonated with you both. Certainly a change is needed if organisations are to get a full return on their IT investment. The question is how fast they can make it happen.
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