The rise of IT Specialists

By James de Raeve and Brian Mitsuki

August 15, 2008 — As IT infrastructures have evolved over the last four decades, moving from a mainframe-centric model, to two- and three-tier client server models, and finally to today’s very diverse and complex distributed computing model, so too have the key technical people who sell, build, integrate and manage these IT systems.

Back in the old mainframe days, the glass partitions that separated the team of IT Specialists from the businesspeople reinforced the concept that the IT folks “behind the glass” were isolated and different. Could they only talk in bits and bytes? Could they only speak about “direct access storage device rotation access speeds,” “mean time to failure,” and a host of other IT concepts, but little else from a business perspective? More often than not, the answer to this question was an emphatic “yes.”

During the mainframe era, applications were simpler—most were based on COBOL and accessed by green-screen dumb terminals—and applications did not interact with each other. IT leaders were primarily concerned with technology and technical concepts for themselves rather than whether or not they provided value to the business.

Fast forward to the early 1990s. IT evolved into two- and three-tier client-server models spread out over the IT infrastructure. Local NetWare and Windows servers were distributed among the business units and offices, and the expertise to support these boxes had to become distributed as well. The client-server model introduced greater complexity to computing: distributed applications, data residency spread across platforms and two-phase commit, to name a few. Beginning with client-server models, IT Specialists started becoming more involved in business and business became more involved with IT.

In contrast to the client-server era, today’s IT environment is far more complex, and the business and IT people now must function together as seamlessly as the IT must be integrated with business processes. While this is now self evident from the architecture, solution and infrastructure perspective, it is equally true of the people that make the business and the IT happen.

So who is ultimately responsible for today’s IT environments? The builders, integrators and managers of these highly complex infrastructures are now known as IT Specialists. The IT profession has come a long way from those days when the IT workers were on the other side of the glass, and when business and IT functions were segregated and had little impact on one another. Today’s IT Specialists have to bridge the gap between business functions and departments while maintaining the technical expertise to architect, develop and manage the IT environment.

Perhaps it’s our own misperception of what business people think of highly technical IT Specialists, but the profession is still plagued by stereotypes from 40 years ago.

Despite IT’s evolving and ever more integral role within business environments, the stereotypical perception of the “IT guy” remains: he is good for one thing: deep technical skills and little else. The jokes and stereotypes abound: Throw a raw piece of red meat over the cubicle wall for nourishment along with a system dump, and not only will the IT specialist spit out the bones, but he or she will also resolve the problem causing the dump and produce a code fix for the problem. Even Wally from the Dilbert comic strip has been known to disparage application programmers for assuming they generate worthless code. But don’t worry, he disparages IT architects too.

The stereotypes of the code-obsessed “IT guy” are no longer true. Businesses today require a higher level of capable IT Specialists who can translate business requirements and actualize an IT system to meet the company’s business needs. IT Specialists not only need to possess strong technical skills in a technology area, but they must also possess strong personal and business skills in order to interface with clients to provide client value.

The title of “IT Specialist” has become a widely used term both within the technology industry and inside of companies. With tens of thousands of “IT Specialists” and a vast array of job responsibilities, it is important to understand what defines an IT Specialist and to apply the appropriate set of standards to the profession—not an easy feat.

In a nutshell, an IT Specialist is a service, support, sales or training professional who is able to bridge the gap between client concerns and technical challenges. IT Specialists support solution construction, implementation and systems integration. They are primarily involved in the design, construction and implementation phases throughout the life cycle of a project or engagement on up through management levels. In addition, they may also be involved in the architecture phase of a project or engagement and may even contribute to the vision and strategy of the project.

In today’s business environment, companies need the flexibility to respond to changing market conditions, regardless of geography, time zones and organizational structures. They need to increase the performance of both systems and personnel so they can collaborate with each other. They need infrastructures that are supported by open and interoperable standards.

In order to achieve these things, companies need a guarantee that they’re hiring IT Specialists who possess the proper abilities, experience and skills.

A CIO or enterprise architect building a team needs to be able to look for IT Specialists whose experience meets an accepted set of professional standards. When hiring accountants or lawyers, a business will look at a slew of credentials. CIOs and human resources departments are just now beginning to exercise the same kind of rigor for IT Specialists. For example, large IT consulting firms like IBM and Capgemini, and their clients, are increasingly looking to certification programs for their IT Specialists.

Some companies have developed their own certification programs. But these proprietary programs are costly to administer and don’t overcome the challenge of recruiting the right talent in the first place.

While industry certification programs do exist and offer some level of assurance, the vast majority aren’t a good indicator of one’s ability to execute because they measure knowledge, not experience. Joe Certification might look great on paper but lack the real-world experience and communication skills to get the job done right.

Standardized "skills-and-experience" based certification, on the other hand, benefits both IT Specialist practitioners as well as the companies that employ them. For the IT Specialists themselves, certification against an open, global standard can help provide a clear, motivating path for career development, as well as provide portable credentials that will be recognized and accepted globally. This class of certification also allows IT Specialists membership in a worldwide community of peers that share the same skills and background, values and standards within their profession—akin to a certified accountant or licensed physician.

Gone are the days when the business and IT people can afford to function separately from one another, where there are distinct divisions between the suits and the geeks. Today, not only must the systems that we work with be interdependent, collaborative and interoperable, but we must be as well. Today, the success of IT-enabled business depends on the skills and experience of certified IT Specialists who can break through the glass partition and bridge that old divide.

James de Raeve is the Vice President of Certification for The Open Group. Brian Mitsuki is Americas IT Specialist Profession Leader for IBM.