IT Workforce Trends: Implications for Curriculum and Hiring

At the 2007 Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), panelists discussed a continuing research project about the current IT workforce and future trends, presenting the latest results of an international Web-based survey. The project is sponsored by the Society for Information Management (SIM) International Advocacy Program and consists of two phases. The initial phase was a study of workforce trends in IT client companies and was completed in 2006. IT executives from client firms say it is critical to own business and project management capabilities, and they especially value them in their mid-level hires. Technical capabilities are more likely to be externally sourced, but they are also sought in entry-level hires. The second phase is a study of trends in service provider companies and is ongoing. Our preliminary results indicate that provider firms also value project management and business domain capabilities over technical capabilities. In the panel, we compared the Phase 2 (provider) results to the Phase 1 results from client organizations and discussed the implications of the data for curriculum design, hiring and training practices.