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IT Survival Skills

By Jeff Merron

For IT professionals, certifications in technical areas serve as standard career currency. But even the most gilt-edged diplomas may no longer guarantee advancement. To reach the upper levels of the IT organization, training time is better spent sharpening interpersonal and project management skills.

According to an IT skills research survey by IT Training Magazine, a U.K.-based publication, demand has shifted over the last five years, moving away from technical training and toward business analysis, systems design and project management skills. IT training shops have likewise shifted their offerings to match the demand for these skills.

"The days of code-writing savants that we kept in the back room are over," says John Oberlin, associate vice chancellor and interim CEO at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "We need well-rounded people with social skills and good judgment across a wide variety of situations."

IT Management is Still Management
The College of Information Technology at Georgia Southern University near Savannah, Ga., has a thriving Professional Development Center, serving companies such as Verisign, newspaper publisher Morris Multimedia and Memorial Health, a large health service organization in the area. What most of these companies want for their IT professionals is project management training, says associate dean Hans Reichgelt.

"Memorial Health was keen on communication," says Reichgelt. The Professional Development Center provided Verisign with PMI (Project Management Institute) Certification development units. Morris Multimedia wanted to improve its facility with Scrum, a flexible project management method designed for very small software development teams focusing on short-term goals. Overall, most of those being trained were already overseeing projects and were being groomed for greater management responsibilities. (article continues)

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