Where is the IS Industry Headed?

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  • marty mcmahone
    #1

    Where is the IS Industry Headed?

    Our university is doing some survey work to consider where the world
    of IS is headed. Since most of those here work in that world, I'm
    interested in your thoughts, especially if you think you have a good
    feel for job skills needed now and job skills needed in the future.

    The question is sort of two pronged.

    First, where are IS jobs headed? Will there continue to be a
    significant demand for programming skills? What type of analysis
    skills (especially in terms of those that can be developed
    academically) are important? Are the requirements changing -- will
    things look different in the next five to ten years?

    Second, what are the specific things you would think IS majors should
    understand when leaving the university? Do you think any of those
    things are going to change in the next 5-10 years?

    Those are broad questions since I want to leave a lot of room for your
    thoughts. I'd like to have some idea of what your role is in your
    business and what type of business you are in if you answer (I know
    some people don't like to give specifics on here and that's fine --
    just "we are a manufacturing company, or I'm a private consultant" is
    enough).

    Lastly, I'd point out that I'm not interested in specific language
    skills, etc. I'm not interested in starting another Sun/Microsoft war
    or anything like that. Our philosophy is that even if we use Java/Sun
    products for everything we do, you ought to be able to go into a shop
    using Smalltalk or .Net or whatever and get up to speed quickly -- so
    it's the broader concepts that I'm referring to.

    I don't know whether I'll reply to all responses unless I'm looking
    for clarification, but I promise I'll give all serious consideration.


    Thanks for any ideas,

    Marty McMahone
    University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
    Texas


    Tags: None
    • Nick Malik
      #2
      Re: Where is the IS Industry Headed?

      IS is heading to India and China. At least, development is, and a lot of
      the maintenance work as well. We will see much more of a rise in complete
      packaged solutions (peoplesoft, oracle, sap... ) as the packages get more
      complete, and companies do a better job or resisting the temptation to blow
      the budget by customizing everything under the hood. Outsourcing in
      government circles will increase even further, as folks in the internal
      shops retire, tax revenues fall, and budgets get squeezed, even with a
      backlash against offshore outsourcing. Integration will save millions of
      dollars by removing incompatible systems, but only if Americans understand
      it and can deploy it.

      People here need analysis skills. Someone has to collect requirements to
      feed to India.
      Someone has to test what comes back. Someone has to implement it and
      support the transition.

      People here need consulting skills: the ability to lead, to convince, to
      educate, and to defer.
      Basic people skills... not normally taught in University but it should be.

      People here need to understand packages, in general and in specific. Teach
      EAI and how to implement it. Teach ERP and CRM packages, and how to analyze
      the situation, select the modules, create the gap analysis, create a
      deployment strategy, and roll out a solution in phases. Teach integration
      tools with legacy systems.

      People here need to understand the principles of business in IT, regardless
      of whether they are destined for business or government or academia.

      --- Nick Malik
      Solutions Architect in an IT Integration and Consulting Firm

      "marty mcmahone" <mmcmahome1@hot .rr.com> wrote in message
      news:ccjUb.2699 $we.2292@fe1.te xas.rr.com...[color=blue]
      > Our university is doing some survey work to consider where the world
      > of IS is headed. Since most of those here work in that world, I'm
      > interested in your thoughts, especially if you think you have a good
      > feel for job skills needed now and job skills needed in the future.
      >
      > The question is sort of two pronged.
      >
      > First, where are IS jobs headed? Will there continue to be a
      > significant demand for programming skills? What type of analysis
      > skills (especially in terms of those that can be developed
      > academically) are important? Are the requirements changing -- will
      > things look different in the next five to ten years?
      >
      > Second, what are the specific things you would think IS majors should
      > understand when leaving the university? Do you think any of those
      > things are going to change in the next 5-10 years?
      >
      > Those are broad questions since I want to leave a lot of room for your
      > thoughts. I'd like to have some idea of what your role is in your
      > business and what type of business you are in if you answer (I know
      > some people don't like to give specifics on here and that's fine --
      > just "we are a manufacturing company, or I'm a private consultant" is
      > enough).
      >
      > Lastly, I'd point out that I'm not interested in specific language
      > skills, etc. I'm not interested in starting another Sun/Microsoft war
      > or anything like that. Our philosophy is that even if we use Java/Sun
      > products for everything we do, you ought to be able to go into a shop
      > using Smalltalk or .Net or whatever and get up to speed quickly -- so
      > it's the broader concepts that I'm referring to.
      >
      > I don't know whether I'll reply to all responses unless I'm looking
      > for clarification, but I promise I'll give all serious consideration.
      >
      >
      > Thanks for any ideas,
      >
      > Marty McMahone
      > University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
      > Texas
      >
      >[/color]


        Comment

        • marty mcmahone
          #3
          Re: Where is the IS Industry Headed?

          Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

          "Nick Malik" <nickmalik@hotm ail.nospam.com> wrote in message
          news:2RlUb.2282 50$na.366547@at tbi_s04...
          [color=blue]
          > People here need consulting skills: the ability to lead, to convince, to
          > educate, and to defer.
          > Basic people skills... not normally taught in University but it should be.[/color]
          [color=blue]
          > People here need to understand the principles of business in IT,[/color]
          regardless[color=blue]
          > of whether they are destined for business or government or academia.
          >[/color]

          We agree and require our IS majors to minor in business -- where we have a
          leadership class that addresses people skills. If the classes weren't
          required though, we'd have a tough time getting computer people to take
          them. Our computer science majors often say the reason they chose CS over
          IS is that they didn't want to have to minor in business. Hard to get 19
          year olds to see the big picture sometimes.

          Thanks again,
          Marty


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