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"Workscape" is the term futurists use to encapsulate work, workers and work processes. Of all disciplines, the IT workscape is heading into its most radical transformation yet in the coming years.
The career trajectories of doctors, lawyers and plumbers are relatively predictable. We are fairly confident that we know what their futures will look like.
Yet when it comes to the future of IT management, the short-, middle- and longer-term prognoses are fuzzy. To bring some clarity to the uncertainty of IT career destiny, we queried 300 respondents in large (30%) and midsized enterprises (50%), in the analyst and academic community (10%) and among staffing firms/procurement professionals (10%). We looked at several dimensions of the future workscape:
- What is the work to be done?
- Who will do the work and how?
- How will IT work be procured?
- Where and how will the necessary skills to do this work be developed?
- What is the pricing/cost associated with doing the work?
- What are the risks associated with IT work?
Respondents say that the future will feature more IT work (i.e., more information used in more ways by more people). Everyone will be an information worker, surrounded and connected by IT. Both large and midsized organizations are "professionalizing" their IT buying behavior via portfolio management and through "oversight of procurement" (the new phrase for purchasing professionals). We will cease buying inputs (i.e., technology pieces and parts) and start buying business outcomes enabled by the efficient operation of technology. Vendors that deliver on their promises will make more money than those that don't.
The range of opinion on the nature of the future IT workscape is quite broad. While just about everyone agrees that IT work will undergo a transformation, no one knows when that future will arrive (see Figure 1, above). Yet it's very likely to be led by mobile, articulate and mission-obsessed individuals committed to delivering results.
Further, the future IT workscape will be defined by two fundamental realities:
- There will be no surprises; IT will deliver as promised.
- There will be no excuses; the days of accepting ineffective IT are over.
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