Where will IT be 5 - 10 years from now?
What new roles will become important?
What roles will fade away?
Will COBOL still be here?
Will Project Management be the same?
What will methods, software, hardware lookk like?
Will Americans carve out a niche or will all IT be offshored?
What positive observations/predictions do you have to share?
Answers (27)
I believe there is currently a huge gap between the IT world and the business world. This is becoming more and more of a problem. In the 90's IT was more of a service related department. These days, IT is a crucial and integrated part of every part of a business. This is why I am starting my MBA. There is going to be an enormous need for people with a background in both diciplines.
In my opinion:
1) New roles will be software engineers and tester;
2) COBOL still be for a long of time;
3) the outsourcing's phasys will slow down;
4) Maybe there will be a comeback of client-server architecture and more importance of embedded systems;
IT is no more a ancillary department in any organization. With most of the fortune companies having invested in IT heavily a kinda saturation will be seen in these companies but there will huge opportunties in the emerging small companies. I gut feeling is over a period of time project management in the established IT set ups will fade away and jobs will become clerical like a teller in a bank, conductor in a bus, a cashier in the billing counter. As far as technology is concerned it will depend on the amount of investment go in to R&D and how much company want to disrupt the existing setup. Companys would like to disrupt the existing infrastructures only if their core businesses run fine.
> What new roles will become important?
Personally, I think automation especially in the world or recognition will be more important. With the rising costs of building and leases, there is going to be more of push to work from home and decentralize from the office.
> What roles will fade away?
The lower-end jobs like the Helpdesk will be less important.
> Will COBOL still be here?
This is kind of a funny question.. I think it will still be there, but not as much.
> Will Project Management be the same?
No, it will be more important and changed completely. How will things get completed? Do they meet the client demands? On time?
> What will methods, software, hardware lookk like?
I have read a couple of pretty cool articles lately. (1) Intel is coming out with a solid-state hard drive that is 50-100 faster than today's mechanical drives. (2) Laptops are going to change radically.
> Will Americans carve out a niche or will all IT be offshored?
Americans for the most part, are overpaid and from a business perspective, it will be cheaper to offshore the IT positions. I think it will come at a price of how we get things done though - If I have to call multiple times to a Support line to get one problem fixed, then what is the point?
> What positive observations/predictions do you have to share?
Automation like I said above. I have also read that there is a push to make programming easier. That being said, you will be able to take blocks of code (Cognos already does this for reporting with cubes) and you assemble together to your desired result without having to know the intricacies of it.
I think that there is going very quickly radical differences in how we do business today.. There is still going to be retail for buying clothes and things we have to touch, but things like milk, cheese, eggs, and hard goods like a DVD player or a shovel will be purchased through a portal. Personally, we are partnered up with a corporation that this "land grab" going on and will become huge! Once the land is gobbled up, the people that had the foresight to claim their stake are going to be huge.
Eric P.
IT Professional
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Without getting into a lot of discussion on any one issue...
The help desk will NOT go away (I too used to think it would).
Business analysts who understand the business and the way technology works will continue to grow in importance.
The CIO role will fade away in many organizations (and thats not necessarily bad).
I never thought COBOL would last this long, but many organizations continue to have massive infrastructures tied to it, and will resist leaving the platform. Personally, if my organization were tied to it I'd definitely be putting its replacement on the strategic roadmap.
I'd like to think PM would improve, but the fact is few organizations are willing to do what is necessary to change the non-regimented way projects are implemented today.
Few things in IT have wowed me like the prospects of server and client virtualization, from a perspective of resource management and business continuity. I can't speak beyong the classroom texts for what software methodologies will look like.
Offshoring continues to have issues (Cultural, temporal) that affect its success, and to some extent I think they always will. Given the nature of many help desk calls and the need to work WITH business members to meet company objectives, outsourcing EVERYTHING seems improbable.
I'll leave any specific prognostications to Gartner.
Michele Z.
Project Manager, Technical Analist, Developer, 360° IT Specialist & SOA Expert
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In 5-10 years... uhm
1. True Professionals will take back the lead of ITC field. Nowadays IT is plagued with many not-so-professional figures
2. all the parasite actually feeding on the IT will be wiped away (yeah, I hope so) by the need of true professionals
3. COBOL will be here forever. I've considered it dead for ages, and now guess what am I doing ?
4. Project Management ? What is it ? The "Do it, and do it quick and don't miss the deadline" way will still rule!
5. Cannot answer. Maybe java will become fast as a real prog.language, maybe J2EE will sink in its own complexity, maybe we'll start using OOP as it was meant to be... maybe we'll revert back to good old Pascal and write only for Apple devices...maybe we'll be all working for good 'ld Bill...
6. Off shoring will slow down, it's only a matter of time. Otherwise, quality will disappear from IT world.
But the most important thing to ask about the future is about the infrastructures... I personally do not believe in an all on-line IT world...
Barbara B.
Education Management Consultant and Contractor
Best Answers in: Education and Schools (1)
Looking at next ten years i imagine an absolutely terrific development, as far as IT and business links are concerned. IT department (particularly in great structured companies, but not only) will be tightly connected with each other companies department. I imagine a huge development of interactive platforms and an easier use of them. I imagine a total different way of business communication, marketing and selling focused on the large use of social networks to increase commercial impact ant to optimize and maximize time management. I suppose this will take place in several years, though i don't believe too many years. This business evolution will require many specialized work-skills in any companies department (new marketing skills for istance or new specialized legal experts to set the standards to make companies go on in the respect of privacy rules and new ethics rules for business and negotiations). We're all going to work a lot but i'm sure it' will be a fantastic revolution which will multiply work opportunities in many business domains and in all companies departments
Barbara Barbieri
Footprints will continue to get smaller with new blade technology and things like VMWare.
Offshoring is a function of costs and reliability. In some places like India the costs are going up and they can't find/recruit enough people. This is opening up other 3rd world countries but, with the dollar faultering, it might make more sense here. Witness all the reverse offshoring articles. The other is reliability and dealing with some 3rd world places just aren't. Is it worth it to save a buck but, lose 2 clients?
Project management will continue to evolve and develop into a variety of specialized areas. Who was PMI certified 20 years ago? Now it's pretty much demanded. That demand will drive more certifications and various levels of achievement or skill.
Cobol - LOL! I took a class in that one semester so I could coach the wife (girlfriend at the time) through it the following one with my old test and projects. The wife is still around and looks like Cobol will be too....
One of the key words that will make the difference between now (and recent past) and the future will be "virtualization everywhere". Virtualization will enable us to separate applications from hardware. Because the current road (operating systems) is a dead-end street. Once we have this virtualization in a standardized shape programmers can focus on applications and hardware folks on the physical stuff. So that we get simple but effective use of IT in our lives.
Having said that, here are my answers to your question:
>What new roles will become important?
I vote for those who can actually help to add value for business and communities when using IT, so analyst with a deep functional understanding of software and programmers with a deep understanding of needs of businesses and communities.
>What roles will fade away?
People all over the place who think they can fine-tune an operating system!
>Will COBOL still be here?
I guess that anything built that is not destroyed will still be there.... and if it is still good, why bother?
>Will Project Management be the same?
No, Project management is dealing with people, and as long as we don't evolve into different species things will stay the same. The only thing PMs have to deal with is that they may never physically meet the involved persons.
>What will methods, software, hardware lookk like?
Hard to tell... hopefully not faster variations of what we have now.
>Will Americans carve out a niche or will all IT be offshored?
The IT community will be a lot more global as borders don't stop bits. Buyers will alway be ready to pay good money for real value.
>What positive observations/predictions do you have to share?
See the intro.
Links:
Russell G.
Enterprise Technology Engineer, Commercial Artist in pre and post computer era, Musician including digital music
Let's look at what has happened since the tech bubble burst, coming close to a decade ago. What I see are two things: technology oriented companies and non-technology oriented companies.
The technology oriented companies will be centralized as an IT organization, with no defined boundaries where the A-typical "IT Department" sits. It will be the organization to deliver IT Services.
The Non-technology oriented company will have an A-typical "IT Department" to serve it facilitation in everyday usage of computers. IT will no dictate how technology is used, but will serve to take complexity out of computer use the non-technical company decides to take on, so the greater staff can get work done. And the IT Department for these organizations will serve to integrate services provided from the technology oriented company.
This model has not really changed in the past decade. What trend we do see is that end users are using computers more for every day job tasks. But the role of the IT Department has always been to make sure computer services are delivered to end users as easy as possible, so the end users can get their work done.
I work for a technology oriented company to serve online training and e-class communities to other organizations. Link provided.
Links:
Andrew E.
Systems and Database Administrator (Linux, Windows, Progress, SQL Server) at Abbott Point of Care
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New Roles?
Project managers and Business strategists with an IT background who can leverage technology to automate every facet of business processes and procedures.
Roles that will fade away?
Software implementation and packaging specialists. SAAS will be huge and hosted applications will overtake desktop-installed applications.
COBOL?
Yes, but for the same reason it exists today: the banking and industrial systems developed with it will be too expensive to replace.
Project Management?
Generally speaking, the practice will be similar but there will be more of a focus on using IT to enable businesses to do more....(pretty much what everyone said 10 years ago...)
Software/Hardware?
SAAS will be the preferred method of delivery to end-users. Hardware? Who knows...hopefully two pieces of thin, flexible plastic will be your laptop: one for the display and one for a keyboard.
Will Americans carve out a niche, or will IT be offshored?
Neither! Everyone will realize that Canadians do the best work and it will all be "on-shored" to Canada!
Observations/Predictions?
International and Global corporations will cease to have many data centres, and will consolidate into one massive one. In order to make data centres more efficient, some will be moved to the arctic circle to save money on cooling costs.
The biggest change that I think is happening in IT is the integration of higher level IT functions into business operations. This is leading to more opportunities for business analysts and project managers, which is why I got my PMP. This is one area where I think local talent will be able to carve out a niche, as these people will have to be able to work very closely with their business counterparts. They will also have to have a broad understanding of technology to be able to determine the best way to use IT to enhance the business.
As much as some would prefer it to, I don't really see help desk functions going away. There will always be users who need assistance with one thing or another, and a well run Service Desk (to use the ITIL nomenclature) is something that I see as essential to good operations. In addition, there will surely be a need for "hands-on" system operators and desk side technicians. These will also be areas for local talent to shine, as it's hard to turn a screwdriver in Cincinnati when you're in Mumbai, or vice versa.
As for mainframes and COBOL, I think they will still hang around, largely due to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. The main hurdle for IT professionals, as well as those who may be entering the field is getting a handle on the concepts behind the technology. I have seen too many people who only know implementation, as opposed to understanding the theory behind it. As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Those who have a firm grasp of the underlying structures of computer systems are those who will be able to better add value to themselves and their careers.
In more real world terms, if someone understands how a relational database works, the difference between Oracle, SQL Server and MySQL is largely a difference in syntax. An individual who has a good working knowledge of what an operating system is about will have little trouble moving from Windows to Linux to Unix. A developer who knows how to create a good algorithm will be able to pick up the language of the month relatively quickly. Conversely, a "code monkey", who only knows how things are done in one language, will have problems writing good code even in the language he or she knows. Those recruiters who understand this will have an easier time finding top talent, and those businesses that invest in their people will best be able to use IT to differentiate themselves from their competition.
Interesting..How can we predict IT that far like 5 years?? well You just need to think outside the box because there will no BOX at all , Remeber SUN CEO's puchline "Network is the computer"..So here goes my out-of-box thoughts
IT (Information Technology) is being Transformed into KT (Knowledge Technology)
10 years from now It will be more of K-applied and less of T (Technolology).
What new roles will become important?
CeO, CKO, CEO
Chief encryption Officer, Chief Knowledge officer, Chief Experience Officer ;-) (One who creates experiential environment for the enterprise)
What roles will fade away?
Obviously
CIO --> Less of Information
CEO --> enough of executives like "Enron", will be replaced by collective leadership a.k.a. 2.0
Will COBOL still be here?
sure although wrapped inside some SOA..stuff, but COBOL Programmers? NO
Will Project Management be the same?
Conventional Project management as taght by PMI would be less applicable, More of Agile techniques / Hollywood model will scale to massively collaborated project management..PM 2.0
What software, hardware lookk like?
Hardware will hit the form factor of a Mobile / Credit card...Software will be more visual as in Table PC / iPhone kind of interface
Will Americans carve out a niche or will all IT be offshored?
If American continue to write massively redundant code, it would still cost an arm and leg to maintain , they can instead lay foundation for software Architecture, Reuse...to regain the position. Offshored? World is flat, so where is the shore?
What positive observations/predictions do you have to share?
It will be peak of Golden age, Where top priority of every governement would be environment protection, Green enterprise. Bio technology + genetics would enable overcome the abuse of medecine and control every disease. Massive networking via ensure togetherness, speedy solution for any problem anywhere in the world
oops.. that's lot of stuff
Important roles -- more project and business need focused, less focus on operations and programming. There will still be a need, but the trend is outsourcing the tech functions that do not directly impact the bottom line.
Cobol -- Peoplesoft, Lawson and a few other midsized players are still all Cobol business logic. Lawson has a 4GL for Java that's very slick, but still a few years away from full use. It's going to be here for a long time.
Project Mgmt -- more managing expectations and the overall levels of satisfaction. Easy to get caught up on process and create too much overhead with PMI methods, but healthy to follow a well defined process. Might see more ITIL and CMM language show up in the development work.
Software -- the desktop and online gizmos will become more integrated, OS will be less a dependency. Mobile devices will become more important, especially in the supply chain.
Hardware -- more virtualization and consolidation. An explosion of point solutions and OS'es that run only app on one box will converge back to two large processing farms with SAN attached disk. That smells of the old mainframe operating model, yes? It's an efficient way to manage systems.
The American niche in IT -- There will be companies that innovate in the US and always a need for professional services. Noticed that one Indian company is setting up shop in a rural US area to help the time zone issue and hire more local speakers. The bulk of the user community is in the US, EU and Asia. Global pressures might push salaries down and require more travel.
Positive observations -- there's lots of work out there for both systems analysts and software developers. Operations functions will start to pull back as quality declines. I think people will become more specialized and entreprenurial in their out look.
My views as an IT professional
Considering that nowadays you have components freely available online for everything right from database, LDAP connectivity to Calendar functions, software engineers cant survive solely on technical skills. The software professional in future, would be more of a functional domain expert, with more stress on the business logic.
What i am looking at in future, is a total separation of the functional and technical domains. Purely technical people would concentrate on frameworks, components, code quality, 3rd Party softwares etc. While the functional experts would concentrate more on the business knowledge.
The plain vanilla code monkeys who just work on some modules without fully understanding the business domain, will be an extinct species. No longer would it be possible to survive just by writing the sub menu of a sub menu of a sub menu of a menu.
As long as Banking sector is there, COBOL will never be extinct. Mainframes are still the most secure of places to store data, and so COBOL will be there for long.
Project Managers will have to be PMP certified. And they would have to be Functional Domain experts. Project Managers can no longer survive on Excel, MS Project and Powerpoint alone.
Am not sure about hardware, but software will undergo a drastic change.The Component model will totally dominate, with the result that an application will now consists of various components talking to each other via interface. Also the Facebook model of applications using 3rd Party components developed by Freelance developers, would be comming into picture also.
I am not sure of offshoring, but in future Americans cant keep claiming that they are the innovators and others only follow. The Asian bloc is catching up fast. These are the days when knowledge is available freely online, and O/S are putting up their source code. I am in Korea now, and some of the tech applications are awesome here. Korea has the highest internet speed and connectivity, and right now they are into cutting edge areas of research like nano technology and A.I.
India is no longer just the back office of the world or doing just coolie work. Bangalore is now turning out to be the next Silicon Valley, with startups emerging everywhere. Also many of the so called coolies have been quitting cushy jobs in consultancy firms, and venturing out into start up firms. Chinese are furiously innovating and comming up with newer ideas.
I am not saying it is curtains for US, but the Americans can no longer afford to be complacent or rest on their laurels or live on past glory. The Asian bloc is catching up fast, and will be giving them tough competition. The Americans can only underestimate it at it's own peril. It is simple, the US needs to pull up its socks period.
What i am seeing in the future, is the days of monopoly by a few companies will be gone. We are going to see a more even spreading out of resources. The software we will see will be a totally collaborative model. Work from home, will be a common feature. Developers would make use of 3rd Party components on the web, and focus would be more on the business logic. In effect i think the software now would be closer to what the client really wants.
Where IT will be in 5 - 10 years will be determined by daily requirements that collectively form the evolution of IT. From history it is clear that certain elements will remain almost unchanged since inception, and that some some will undergo constant drastic change to keep up with an evolving landscape.
- New roles - none.
- Unskilled middle management will hopefully fade away driven by economic pressure on organisations.
- COBOL will probably still be around.
- Project Management will evolve into Project Collaboration.
- Methods, software and hardware will still look the same, just faster and more efficient.
- An international multi-cultural landscape would probably be best for the IT world.
- IT will one day be classified as a utility or commodity such as water and electricty.
Sandeep R.
Owner at Starting New Businesses
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IT will be where ever it is today even 5 to 10 years from now
I think nobody will be able to appreciate or afford new roles going forward
Roles exist today because they serve some purpose, so they will continue to exist
COBOL is in use today and will continue to be in use
Project Management will be the same, particularly microsoft project usage will continue there wont be any major change. PERT GANTT charts are like the laws of gravity how can they change
Methods, software and hardware will look the same hopefully more efficient
Americans will carve out a niche and all IT will not be offshored
Software components assembly like the way we build models with lego bricks will continue to be wishful thinking even beyond 10 years from now.
Sven D.
Independent Photography Professional
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- I believe the roles of the integrators and consultants will become even more important. Also the end user will become more important, since more and more things become automated. (end users have to approve/decline some choices offered by the system)
- imho, none of the existing roles will fade out of existance, there will just be other priorities for everyone ;)
- cobol... i don't think we can ever exterminate that :D
- Project management will always be the same... what needs to be done, needs to be done, within budget.
- hardware might become greener and have increased performance, software becomes more complex.
- I can't speak for the Americans, i'm Belgian.
- Since downtime will become more costly in the years, i believe that more and more companies will require more new capable workers.
- If you wonder why? The amount of knowledge that one has to cope with keeps growing. That's why there are more and more people specialising in a specific tasks. Ever tried implementing SAP on an oracle database ? and tried to do a complete corporate rollout while doing the support for it as well ? If you can't finish it of during the week, please do continue in the weekend, meaning that the amount of work/person is increasing, taking some people over their limits, perhaps discarding their social life.
I also believe that there will be a higher need for business (process)analysts, to improve corporate performance and to assist in change managent projects. They should have a better view on the impact when changes are proposed.
My € 0.02
Most roles will be on-site and telecommuting PM's and a few programmers and developers. The rest will be offshored somewhere. On the positive site, I'm a Sr PM so it really won't be my problem, and there is a movement afoot in this country, especially if Obama is elected, to re-work, if not dismantle, NAFTA, which would be a big help to us all.
Jon U.
Managing Partner at SmallCart Systems - Exceptional IT Service Management Results
Best Answers in: Enterprise Software (2), Public Relations (1), Planning (1), Starting Up (1), Computers and Software (1)
What new roles will become important?
Roles that define new innovative ways of achieving business results in creating sales revenue and cost savings in labor. Roles that align technology with business.
What roles will fade away?
Anything that can be automated will be automated. Roles such as setting up accounts, troubleshooting simple issues, and manual process roles will be either eliminated or fading away. Individuals in these roles will be re-allocated to roles that manage this automation or improve the automation. What once took a team of 9 to complete will now take 1 person to manage.
Will COBOL still be here?
Yes... Legacy systems take many years to move off of... but technology managers should not focus on the technology used but the return on investment of that technology. If a system built in COBOL is still delivering a return higher than the cost of not developing a new system then why should they get rid of COBOL?
Will Project Management be the same?
I think a higher responsibility will be placed on Project Managers to not only deliver projects on time and within budget but they will also have to start showing the value of their projects to VPs and the Executives making budget decisions.
What will methods, software, hardware lookk like?
Hardware that is cheaper than PB sandwiches and Software that is more expensive than caviar.... We will eventually move off of a software based system and more of a service oriented architecture. Ironic.... but Citrix Services and Windows Terminal Services was ahead of its time. The cost reduction of NOT having to deploy installed services to individual desktops will be a great reduction in cost. As bandwith and disk space becomes cheaper and security concerns increase.... it may benefit some organizations to move their infrastructure to a terminal services based solution in some areas (i.e. help desk, support roles, admin roles, etc)
Will Americans carve out a niche or will all IT be offshored?
Certain tasks such as monitoring systems and maintaining databases could be offshored, but roles that require customer service or knowledge of American business operations will be very costly to offshore.
What positive observations/predictions do you have to share?
We are increasingly looking for new ways to standardize systems and processes. This is quite different than back in previous decades where everyone wanted to build their own system and their own "better" way of doing things.... now everyone wants to build interoperability between technologies. To get ahead in technology in the coming decades will mean that your organization is an information contributor and not one to surpress information.
Steven L B.
Embedded Systems Engineer at L-3 Communications; (DNA + Genealogy)
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Allow me, from a non-IT area, to address specifically the subject of “a new role” that is and will become more important.
Several years ago, as a Process-Automation and Remote-Control Engineer, a non-IT realm, I saw a big need for becoming more familiar with Networking, Ethernet and TCP/IP.
Being into the electronics and programming area, using languages such as Assembly, C, and LabVIEW, I saw a personal void in my understanding of the established Ethernet Network, so I took it upon myself to get this understanding and took a several-month class to obtain an MCSE, and a self taught process to obtain CISCO CCNA (to the point of having several PC’s and a router in my basement). My intention was not to become an IT Guru or System Administrator, but to better understand, and be able to work with, the hardware, protocols, and the IT Administrators, in the ever growing Networking and Routing field. Indecently, I was told at the time by my employer that this was “not in scope of my job description”, so I flipped the bill myself.
Since then, this added training, knowledge, and experience allowed me to set up an Automation Network, independent of the local Business Network (but using some of the same cabling). Additionally, I was able to develop Embedded Systems that use TCP/IP over the internal Business Network and the World-Wide-Web/Internet for remote control and monitoring.
I see this as a WIDE open area and one that the ‘conventional’ IT System Admins will have to work with; the added use of the “Business/Data-processing network” in the area of Equipment/Industrial/Automation and Remote Control, including such subjects as POE (Power over Ethernet), Network Appliances, Security, and more deterministic process control. Although a totally segregated network may be used for automation, the common protocols and techniques are a great use of the items proven by the business network.
Just as in Electronics, where you can not totally ignore Digital or Analog, and can not ignore the Software that controls the Hardware, non-IT disciplines will have to understand the Ethernet Network, and the IT Admins will have to understand the basics of the fast propagating Process-Control use of the Network.
I am presently fortunate in that I work with an IT group that is very open to share newer IT concepts and techniques and work with me to solve my unique ‘automation/control’ issues, where we can patiently, but intelligently, explain the nitty-gritty details of both sides of this coin.
Keith W.
Software Engineer at SteelHouse
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Fun question. Let's see if I can answer this as best as I can:
What new roles will become important?
* Usability developer roles. There won't be such a thing as a "web developer" anymore. Designers will simply do graphics, while UI developers focus on usability of systems.
* IT Negotiator. Typically, these roles are the go between from business to the developers. Some call them PMs (program managers, project managers), but I tend to find the majority of these types to lack depth in experience on both sides. These people will be more specialized in developing requirements, helping develop budgets/timelines, provide comfort zones for developers and have more knowledge about the development process to give them better insight in helping to mode IT related products/projects.
* International Developers. As an American working in Japan, I've learned the difficulties of working abroad. For companies to achieve global presence, they must embrace a new type of developer who has the experience of working abroad and understanding how the local environment works. Just doing a simple translation and changing the clock isn't the right solution.
* Business Developers. The role of core engineering and business development will split. Core engineering works on hardcore, technical problems. Business developers utilize the foundation laid by the engineering groups and focus more on the bottom line. As a result, they do not need to have all of the hardcore knowledge of a pure engineer, but they should have more practical knowledge in being able to get things done fast so the business can achieve their goals through rapid product launches.
What roles will fade away?
Most hardware related roles. Help desk, network engineering, system administration will slowly die as businesses like Sun, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, etc. monetize shared/grid computing. I've worked in enough businesses to realize that the infrastructure side is rarely done correctly. Thus, companies like those aforementioned can utilize their best practice knowledge to sell to businesses in creating 100% uptime environments with top notch security and various foundational tools to allow developers to focus on the business needs.
Will COBOL still be here?
Sadly, yes. Mostly, it'll exist in older, legacy companies whose models of business will probably similarly die a painful death.
Will Project Management be the same?
Let me borrow a quote:
"People are people So why should it be You and I should get along so awfully..." I think you get the point :)
What will methods, software, hardware lookk like?
As I mentioned, enterprise level hardware will slowly migrate towards grid platforms where a select few companies will be providing true 100% uptime systems. Methods/software will hopefully be like less script-like and more intelligent. Not necessarily verbose, but high level. We'll probably discover a number of business design patterns in the process, publish them, convert them into automated systems, simplify them some more after some refactoring. Have any doubts? Just look at things like business rules engines, declarative programming paradigms, Ruby on Rails, etc.
Will Americans carve out a niche or will all IT be offshored?
Americans are some of the most creative people in the world. While the education level in terms of science and math maybe perceived to be higher in other countries, the creativity of Americans in concentration will allow the country to continue to be a dominant player in IT. Just because you have a few dozen certifications doesn't mean you're going to invent the next YouTube, Facebook, Google Maps, etc. :)
What positive observations/predictions do you have to share?
My biggest prediction for IT is that IT will finally become unionized. It's the one major industry that has not been unionized. But it should be.
What new roles will become important?
Especially roles binding IT to Business and integration specialists. Roles that combine both IT-knowledge and User/Business-wisdom will excel. At the end off this period in time, there will be no difference between IT and business, it will all be the same. Knowledge is mostly integrated into IT systems/components.
What roles will fade away?
Application programmers, Technical designers. Only a few will be needed to combine ready-to-go systems into 1 working structure.
Will COBOL still be here?
Yes, but it will be diminishing.
Will Project Management be the same?
Yes.
Will Americans carve out a niche or will all IT be offshored?
Most off it will be offshored, just like europeans the americans will have to focus more on management.
What positive observations/predictions do you have to share?
Thanks to these developments, we finally get to the point where we can focus on using IT rather than development of another sytem with new toolkits.
Russell W.
Guest lecturer - Macroeconomics. IT Management for the Enterprise at University of Kentucky
Best Answers in: Enterprise Software (2), Using LinkedIn (2), Ethics (1), Computers and Software (1), Software Development (1)
IT will not exist in 5-10 years.
What new roles will become important? SEO
What roles will fade away? web programmer
Will COBOL still be here? Yes, at least in very large banks
Will Project Management be the same? I think it will have a break through
What will methods, software, hardware look like? quantum computers?
Will Americans carve out a niche or will all IT be offshored?
You mean outsourcing to India? i think india still have many room for improvement
What positive observations/predictions do you have to share?
People may not just asking for "networking" from web, but also with business opportunity / appreciation / partners
That's why linkedin ~
I think bio-technology and Information-technology will merge to form the new age computing. I think every human will have a chip inserted inside the body which will help him/her to connect to the cloud. The people will be always online! There will be a small microphone to instruct (audio instructions will be the only interface to computing) and an eye-glass to show the virtual screen that can be pulled over to see things.
The chip inserted is used to communicate various information related to the person for e.g. health indicators to the medical assist etc. It can be also used to identify the physical location of the person and all other kind of location-related services around it.
This is my vision of IT coming to us in our lifetime…
