it professional outlook 2012 226015[1]

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G00226015

IT Professional Outlook, 2012 to 2016: Preparefor a Future Unlike the PastPublished: 27 January 2012

Analyst(s): Diane Morello

Gartner's analysis of professional hot spots depicts large shifts in the profileof the IT workforce. IT professionals whether practitioners in the ITorganization or experts in business areas can use this analysis to focustheir areas of concentration.

Key Findings "Contextual layering" will be the watchword for connecting IT professional growth to strategic

fit, weaving together context, competencies and development.

As information and technology fuel top-line growth, the profile of IT professionals will expand tobusiness-IT expertise, customer insight, versatility and hybrid thinking.

The Internet has had unimaginable effects on the traditional usage of information andtechnology, and its transformative effects will continue to reshape all types of professions,businesses and delivery of services IT or otherwise.

IT expertise will no longer live exclusively in the IT organization. IT-like functions, understandingand applications will continue to migrate into businesses and suppliers and will change thenotion of traditional IT specialization, roles and definitions.

Consumer behaviors, expectations, services and devices have broken through the wall of ITarcana. Mobile technology, social media, smartphones, apps and online purchasing have putinformation and technology, front and center.

Recommendations CIOs and IT leaders: Use the IT professional analysis to open a conversation about where the

enterprise will be in 2016 and how four pivotal domains of expertise will be distributed.

HR executives: Use this analysis to understand how changing workforce profiles will affectstrategic workforce planning and disrupt standing assumptions around job definition.Recruitment, development and assignment tracks all will be affected. Although our focus is onIT, the implications reach into every professional domain.



IT practitioners and experts: Use the broad outlines of the IT professional outlook todetermine how to differentiate, to decide on and develop sweet spots, and to understand theprofessional ups and downs you are likely to face.

Table of Contents

Strategic Planning Assumption...............................................................................................................2

Analysis..................................................................................................................................................2

Updated IT Professional Outlook: 2012 to 2016...............................................................................3

Four Domains of Expertise..........................................................................................................4

How to Navigate the Domains....................................................................................................5

A Layered Approach to Context, Competencies and Development.............................................6

Tracking the Sweet Spots in the Four Domains of Expertise.............................................................8

Technology Infrastructure and Services......................................................................................8

Information Design and Management.........................................................................................9

Business Process Design and Management.............................................................................10

Relationship Management and Change Leadership..................................................................11

Wrap-Up........................................................................................................................................13

Recommended Reading.......................................................................................................................13

List of Figures

Figure 1. Gartner IT Professional Outlook, 2004 to 2016........................................................................4

Figure 2. Blending Context, Competencies and Developmental Layers...................................................7

Strategic Planning AssumptionThrough 2016, "contextual layers" will be the watchword for IT professional growth.

AnalysisMuch has happened since we introduced the IT professional outlook in 2004 ("The IT ProfessionalOutlook: Where Will We Go From Here?"). Business and technology changes have intensified involume, pace, capacity and absorption. The effects on the IT profession are significant:

As information and technology underpin top-line growth, the profile of IT professionals hasbroadened to embrace business-IT expertise, customer insight, hybrid thinking and cross-functional insight. Gartner surveys in early 2011 indicate that a majority of survey respondents

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(77%) agree or strongly agree that increasing business and technical complexity will drive theneed for integration and process management skills. Another 66% agreed or strongly agreedthat the growth of data and information will drive a new class of IT experts possessing business,mathematical and visualization skills (see "Survey Analysis: IT Organizations Need to ChangeSkills Mix and Staffing Models to Fulfill Business Needs").

The Internet has had unimaginable effects on the view of information and technology. Almost 2billion people on the Internet are making 88 billion Google searches a month. Each month, 28exabytes of data traverse the Internet, resulting in 350 exabytes of data stored. According tovarious estimates (from Cisco, IBM, Intel and others), approximately 10 billion devices arealready permanently connected to the Internet today, with another 50 billion to 60 billiondevices attaching intermittently. These numbers are expected to rise to more than 20 billion and200 billion, respectively, by 2015. The Internet has become a living and breathing web ofpeople, things, information and services, opening and shuttering businesses with speed andefficiency. Moreover, it will have a transformative effect on the delivery of business services,including IT, and an equally transformative effect on various assumptions of the IT profession(see "Re-Imagine IT Using Insights From Symposium's Analyst Keynote").

Consumer behaviors, expectations, services and devices have broken through the wall of ITarcana. Today, the world is home to 800 million smartphones, 1.5 billion PCs, 3.5 billion mobilephones and 5 billion Internet-connected devices. Consumers took information and personaltechnology into their own hands, having an undeniable impact on the traditional approaches toIT services and the esoterica of the profession. Gartner analysis projects that mobile applicationdevelopment projects targeting smartphones and tablets will outnumber PC projects by a ratioof 4-to-1 (see "Predicts 2012: Application Development").

Generations of applications created since the 1960s have literally reached their breaking points.Experts in the oldest applications face a hard stop. Many will need to develop new careerdirections. Tens of thousands of applications will no longer serve businesses and will consumetime, talent and energy until replaced. IT debt that is, the cost of dealing with delayed anddeferred maintenance of the application portfolio threatens to grow to $1 trillion globally by2015 (see "Measure and Manage Your IT Debt").

Updated IT Professional Outlook: 2012 to 2016

In 2004, Gartner projected that the traditional IT profession would split roughly into four domains ofexpertise technology infrastructure and services, information design and management, businessprocess design and management, and relationships and sourcing. Based on hundreds ofconversations, workshops and engagements with clients, the IT professional domains remainlargely the same as we look out to 2016, with only slight modifications.

This update to the IT professional outlook provides a broad view of the four domains of expertiseand their growth or decline from 2004 to 2016. Our outlook draws on patterns, trends and questionsfrom hundreds of engagements, debates, dialogues, data points and insights. We then synthesizethe information to create what Gartner calls a Strategic Planning Assumption in graphic form (seeFigure 1). While CIOs may see different weightings in their companies, countries, industries,

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enterprise personality profiles, adoption rates and IT maturity levels, the picture remainsrepresentative of the ups, downs and growth of areas.

Figure 1. Gartner IT Professional Outlook, 2004 to 2016

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%2004

2009

2013

2016

Technology Infrastructure and Services

Information Designand Management

Business Process Designand Management

Relationship Managementand Change Leadership

Source: Gartner (January 2012)

Four Domains of Expertise

The IT profession will break into four crucial domains of expertise. We briefly describe them here,and then delve into the sweet spots in each domain in the section titled "Tracking the Sweet Spotsin the Four Domains of Expertise."


In Gartner workshops, CIOs expected this domain to shrink materially as a proportion of theirworkforce, with some expecting it to drop from 80% in 2012 to 10% by 2016, a dramatic rate ofdecline. We can agree with some of that decline, particularly around infrastructure and operations,but some technology services (for example, application development and mobile servicedevelopment) will grow. Business demand for new revenue and the rise of alternative sources cloud computing, most notably will put new options and new avenues in front of decision makersand allow them to redistribute expertise and resources to emerging areas. One CIO says his goal isnot to own or operate data centers in 10 years.

Information Design and Management

Business intelligence, information analytics and master data management will grow in usercompanies, as well as in system integrators and consulting companies. In fact, converting data into




information that is material to pursuing new markets, clarifying the profitability of customers andproducts, and anticipating competitive opportunities will be the foundation of 21st-centurybusiness. Information intelligence will live in business areas, in profit and loss (P&L) units, and innew competency centers around analytics and master data management.

Business Process Design and Management

Business executives are quick to say that IT professionals ought to be as fluent and as intimate withbusiness processes as they are. IT professionals will pursue business processes from three angles:competitive processes that differentiate businesses or institutions; operational processes thatstandardize behaviors and actions inside or across businesses; and processes that automateactivities requiring little or no human judgment or creativity. The first will be the "sweet spot" forbusiness and IT professionals, the second, for outsourcing vendors, and the third, for softwarevendors.

Relationship Management and Change Leadership

Far from the typical technical skills of IT professionals is expertise that deals with people, culture,behaviors and negotiation. While one CIO dismissed this domain as "fluff" a mistake of the firstorder this is the pivotal domain of expertise to deliver on the promise of information andtechnology. In a business world characterized increasingly by big-culture technologies, this domainwill be the incubator for IT professionals to master influence, communication, intangibles andchange. Emotional intelligence, diplomacy and political savvy are pivotal parts.

Following are 2012 updates for the relationship and change domain:

Change leadership is new to this domain. Large-scale business change spurred by newtechnologies and stretching across globally hyperconnected enterprises requires a depth ofcompetence that IT professionals must develop and master. Superficial expertise will notgenerate the credibility or competence required.

Sourcing management, formerly an explicit part of this domain, has been folded into therelationship management component.

How to Navigate the Domains

IT professionals can see themselves fairly easily in the domains of expertise, and many CIOs findthe four domains to be good ways to envision the changing roles of information and technology intheir enterprises. That being said, some CIOs leap quickly into making the domains synonymouswith budget and portfolio categories (for example, run, grow and transform, or operate, design andinnovate). One CIO hastily tossed all technology infrastructure and services expertise into the "run"category, even though new aspects of technology (for example, mobile, social and contextawareness) would feed competitive differentiation, new revenue models and customer segments fordecades. CIOs should consider the following when navigating the four domains:




All budget and portfolio categories will need a mix of expertise domains to one degree oranother.

A discriminating eye helps determine what stays, what goes and what needs enhancement (seeNote 1 "differentiation" defined).

Differentiating the four domains will test the mettle of CIOs and IT professionals. Security,architecture and application development the areas most ambiguous fall foremost into thetechnology domain.

The four domains occasionally bleed into one another. For example, big-culture technologyinitiatives blend multiple expertise domains at various points and in various intensities, eventhough technology is often spurring the change.

A Case in Point to Differentiate Domains

Data warehouse experts from a U.S. transportation company ask a Gartner analyst what businessinformation their CFO and CEO would need on a regular basis. The analyst suggests an array ofmarket, economic and business operational data that would help illuminate business andshareholder impact. In reality, however, the analyst wonders why two self-described informationexperts would know so little about the specialized information needs of their industry. In thisexample, the inability to anticipate or understand their company's information requirements puts thedata warehouse experts in the technology infrastructure and services domain, not in the informationdesign domain.

A Layered Approach to Context, Competencies and Development

Domains of expertise set the groundwork for the IT professional outlook, but they are only part ofthe picture. Our experience with CIOs and IT leaders indicates a change to the how and why amongIT professionals. With the speed at which businesses are using technology to drive products,services, channels and markets, IT professionals need to bolster their professional layering.Opportunities will go to qualified professionals and skilled workers who develop themselves andwho learn and relearn the characteristics, challenges and pressures of particular industries,markets, customers and regions creating a contextually layered professional profile.

Three contextual layers shape the value and employability of IT professionals and practitioners context, competencies and development (see Figure 2):

Learning business context This is the setting in which IT professionals' decisions, actions,assignments and relationships gain meaning. A business decision to increase outsourcing or toconsolidate services, for example, changes the context for IT professionals and practitioners.Context adds meaning to a situation or a circumstance, and many CIOs and IT leaders will needto increase their own contextual awareness and capacity to communicate that context (see"Becoming a Contextual Strategist").

Demonstrating behavioral competencies This is the "how" behind people's actions andbehaviors. Competencies are characteristics that differentiate superior performance in adomain, job or role. They reflect the know-how, experience, acumen, behaviors and




interpersonal dynamics that collectively predict how people achieve success in a domain orassignment. Behavioral competencies in listening, resourcefulness and communication, forexample, will separate the average business analyst from the extraordinary business analyst.Behavioral competence will be the chief differentiators for IT and business professionals.

Developing personal strengths These are the personal options, decisions, opportunitiesand actions IT professionals pursue to improve, enrich or prepare for success. As obvious asthis vantage point may seem, many people sleepwalk through their own careers. The level ofchange expected during the next five to 10 years will make that dangerous and impractical.Though many professionals look to their employers for guidance, employability is ultimately theIT professional's personal imperative.

Figure 2. Blending Context, Competencies and Developmental Layers

LearnBusinessContext

Strategy

Competition

Industry

Technology

Processes

Culture

Politics

DemonstrateBehavioral

Competencies

Customer Focus

Contextual Thinking

Resourcefulness

Critical Thinking

Clear Communication

Change Resilience

DevelopPersonalStrengths

Experiences

Expanding Influence

Assignments

Learning and Education

Expressions of Interest

Passion Points

Source: Gartner (January 2012)

Many IT professionals have multiple options before them. They can elevate their profiles to qualifyfor the cadres of leaders and contributors, as described above. They can strengthen their technicalexpertise by applying it to differentiated projects and portfolios within businesses. Or they canpursue reconfigurable work models emerging around microwork and hyperspecialization, in whichactivities and skills are reduced to small components, "atomized" and applied across an array ofassignments and projects (see T. W. Malone, R. J. Laubacher and T. Johns, "The Age ofHyperspecialization," Harvard Business Review, July 2011).




Tracking the Sweet Spots in the Four Domains of Expertise

In the world of sports, the "sweet spot" is the spot on a club, racket, bat and so on, where a ball ismost effectively hit. In our IT professional outlook, the sweet spot is the spot in one or moredomains of expertise where a career is most effectively launched.

In this section, we delve into the sweet spots of each domain of expertise sweet spots that haveemerged, again, from hundreds of engagements, inquiries, data points and research from ITprofessionals, CIOs, Gartner clients and Gartner analysts.


Gartner definition: Making technical excellence a differentiator through mastery of systemcomplexity, economies of scale, standardization and operational reliability.

Under great scrutiny, this domain sparks discussion about IT as a utility, globally transferable skills,and commodity services and applications. CIOs anticipate substantial drops in the proportion oftheir workforces involved in technology infrastructure and services. Gartner's experience indicatesthat drops are likely, and that the magnitude and timing of those drops will be more conservativethan CIOs expect. A caveat here: This category is not synonymous with infrastructure andoperations on an organization chart. The domain is rooted in technical expertise and know-how,which can stretch across infrastructure, applications, telecom and security.

Three issues will shape the technology infrastructure and services space:

IT services and activities that can be easily specified and codified will be candidates for transferto other markets, for automation or for obsolescence. Service industrialization will make a bigmark here.

Domestic or geographically proximate outsourcing will rise for application development,infrastructure, operations, desktop support and maintenance. Moreover, some CIOs willexperiment with social forums to solve technology and infrastructure problems, rather thanmaintain a large staff just in case a problem arises.

The build vs. buy conversation will dominate this area, as CIOs and IT leaders identify and buildup the services and expertise that differentiate their enterprises, while similarly looking foralternative delivery options for nearly everything else.

Several sweet spots will emerge in technology infrastructure and services, particularly those wediscuss below.

Mobile, Wireless and Context-Aware Services

By 2015, mobile application development projects targeting smartphones and tablets willoutnumber native PC projects by a ratio of 4-to-1. Mobile will ignite innovation in commercialcompanies, education, consumer services and social interaction, and will be a powerful platform forreaching new buyers and influencers in emerging markets Companies trying to figure out the next-generation desktop alone will "miss the boat" (see "Guide for Mobile Application Development,Sourcing and Support, 2011").




Cloud Computing Design and Coordination

Cloud computing will fundamentally change how and whether IT professionals work directly withtechnology. According to the Gartner 2011 CIO survey, 57% of CIOs expect to support more thanhalf their transactions on cloud infrastructure between 2011 and 2015, and 47% of CIOs expect tosupport more than half their transactions on applications leased through a software as a service(SaaS) model. Cloud will demand a focus on business insight, creativity and industry context thanon the mechanics of the technology itself (see "I&O Roles for Private Cloud-ComputingEnvironments").

Social Computing Design

Social computing is an Internet-enabled reflection of human social systems: It extends the reach,scope and number of relationships that individuals can engage in; it amplifies people's voices; andit changes the way people communicate, learn, share opinions and make decisions. While somebusinesses remain skeptical of social computing, a growing percentage of leading-edge and fast-follower companies will respond to demand from marketing, sales, R&D and business developmentexperts to broaden business reach and understand the customer (see "Apply a ComprehensivePlanning Framework as Business Gets Social" and "Social Computing: Redefining Relationshipsand Replicating Infrastructures").

Information Design and Management

Gartner definition: Treating information as a competitive asset through mastery of the creation,classification, analysis, consumption and sale of information.

The information domain is close to the information consumer whether a P&L leader or front-lineworkers and it will move steadily into the strategic business units rather than remain solely in ITorganizations. This will be where the mettle of IT professionals gets proven as the profession splitsalong the lines of "I" and "T." The focus for differentiation moves to exploitation of the informationthat the technology processes. The majority of companies that enjoy competitive advantage willgain it from a differential ability to see and exploit the opportunities afforded by new kinds ofinformation, much of it driven by the Internet of Things (see "Strategic Information Management forCompetitive Advantage").

Several sweet spots will emerge in information design and management, particularly those wediscuss below.

Internet of Things

The Internet that most of us know as the World Wide Web is expanding beyond PCs and mobiledevices. Called the "Internet of Things," this movement will link consumer devices, enterpriseassets, media and everyday items, such as packaged goods, to the Internet at an increasing rate.The things themselves and the components used to connect, sense and monitor those things areonly the ingredients. The flood of data and information that the Internet of Things will introduce willspur demand for information, storage, applications, computing power and analytics as businesses




take in data and use it to produce services and products that aid customers, citizens andstakeholders. Big data, real-time analytics, cloud and architecture considerations will be required tocut costs (see "The Internet of Things Is Coming").

Predictive Analytics

As companies move from using lagging descriptive data to near-real-time customer preference and/or demand data to support business decision-making processes, predictive analytics will play anincreasingly important role in optimizing profitability. Predictive analytics represents a set oftechniques and technologies that incorporate statistics, advanced mathematics, artificialintelligence and data management, collectively used to determine the probability of a futureoutcome that may drive a business decision (see "Seek Information Patterns With Data Mining andPredictive Analytics").

Information Supply Chain

Information will be tightly linked to the movement of food, goods, crops, products, services, capital,copyrights and ideas a sort of Maslow's hierarchy of needs globally across geographical,business and organizational boundaries. In effect, the physical supply chain will be replicated in bitsand bytes as an information supply chain, enabling investors, traders, pattern watchers andentrepreneurs to find areas of unfulfilled demand and insight. Pattern explorers, big-data analyzers,market forecasters and risk mitigation experts will tap into a vast web of information about time,location and identity (see "From IM to EIM: An Adoption Model").

Informatics

Informatics takes a professional practice, such as drug discovery or nursing, and looks at it throughthe lenses of the practice, information management and computer science. Informatics makes theapplication of IT contextually relevant to the people, disciplines and problems at hand. Healthcare,R&D, medicine, bioengineering and geoscience are likely to be heavy hitters (see "ElectronicLaboratory Notebooks in Life Sciences Require Better Bridges Between R&D and Manufacturing").

Business Process Design and Management

Gartner definition: Improving the creation of services, products and revenue by mastering theoptimum flow of ideas and resources to achieve the desired business outcomes.

Business process expertise comes only with insight and perspective about how businesses andcustomer markets behave and compete. In fact, in Gartner's 2009 analysis of what P&L leaderswant from IT, a substantial proportion said they wanted IT professionals to be as fluent and intimatein core business processes and pressures as they were. Business process expertise is not for thefaint of heart, and fewer than 10% of IT professionals will be cut out for the domain. Moreover, therace to develop unified processes often squashes any business process innovation that the effortswere designed to uncover.

Several sweet spots will emerge in the business process domain of excellence, particularly thosewe discuss below.




Raising Workforce Performance

In this area, information experts focus attention on the workplace and how and why people usetools, information, market data and ambient information to sense what's happening, strategize onoptions, decide on actions, communicate decisions and then take action. Especially important hereis the capacity to streamline the processes so the decisions can be made quickly and with integrity.Crummy processes are sources of substantial friction that slow communication, understanding andcommon language within and across enterprises. When the workforce is traveling, highly mobileand distributed across businesses, only effective processes can enhance people's performance not machines' performance (see "CIO Advisory: Want to Improve IT Workforce Effectiveness?Focus on Three Areas").

Business Process Modeling

Business complexity is raising interest in the visibility of information flows, activities andcollaboration, and visual modeling tools help people rise several levels of abstraction above toolsand technology. While BPM and modeling have been around for years, the sweet spot for businessprocess expertise will be the intersection of business-driven changes and frequent, continuous orad hoc process changes. In this area, people need not only process expertise, but also fluency withcore business objectives and the pressures that drive their decisions (see "BPM Survey Insights:Business Process Management Matures as Process Change Becomes More Ad Hoc" and "TwoFactors That Help Identify the BPM 'Sweet Spot'").

Social BPM Design

An imaginative and human approach to process design, social BPM takes over in dynamic andhigh-change environments where traditional BPM routines would fall short. Social BPM describescollaboratively designed and iterated processes that mirror the way work is performed from a "doer"perspective and is experienced from a "receiver" perspective. While the social BPM concept is hardto stomach for the most die-hard process engineers, its iterative approach to doing rather thanendlessly designing will secure buy-in as the processes take shape. Moreover, it mitigates thedisruption associated with the growing number of ad hoc process changes reported duringbusiness process design and improvement initiatives (see "Social BPM: Getting to Doing").

Relationship Management and Change Leadership

Gartner definition: Mastering alliances and behavioral change by exploiting interpersonaldynamics to build relationships and spearhead change across boundaries and constituencies.

When we first introduced the IT professional outlook, this domain was largely about the ITorganization's relationship with its internal clients. In 2012, this domain has been extended toembrace the competencies and emotional intelligence required to shepherd "big culturetechnology" initiatives such as social computing, mobile technology, cloud computing, businessprocess innovation and global business services that require massive cultural and technologicalalignment to build a competitive advantage and present a powerful barrier to entry.




Whereas many people continue to think about relationships and change as soft and fuzzy to thepoint that one CIO recently dismissed them as fluff this domain of expertise is at the core ofbusiness transformation and competitive advantage. At Symposium/ITxpo 2011, roughly 50% of theone-on-one conversations that Gartner analysts fielded revolved around people, change, culture,influence and relationships. Moreover, the conversations stretched across a wide array of roles,domains, initiatives and technical roots. The domain deals essentially with people, behaviors,intangibles, power, politics and feedback. Developed and pursued effectively, expertise in thisdomain closes the gap among expectations, execution and adoption. What's more, it will be thedifferentiating expertise.

Several sweet spots will emerge in the relationship management and change leadership domain,particularly those we discuss below.

Customer Experience Design

Many businesses talk about their customers and their customers' experiences, and designing andmanaging the customer experience are one way to make their commitment visible. Customerexperiences can make or break a company's reputation. This area of expertise manifests in suchareas as "voice of the customer," designing the digital user experience, redesigning processes fromthe outside in, personalizing customer offers and experiences, instituting programs of co-creation,and changing employee attitudes and culture toward customers (see "Key Issues for CustomerExperience Management, 2011").

Hyperconnected Enterprise Engagement

Modern leadership, management and organizations have rarely seen the likes of thehyperconnected enterprise. High-speed communication networks, rich networks of suppliers,federated communities of influence, porous boundaries, burgeoning Internet commerce, intricatesoftware-enabled processes, and consumers behaving as individual markets and opinion makersshape the modern enterprise. Pivotal business outcomes design, quality, service, innovation,process leadership, financial performance will be outside the control of any one enterprise.Whereas traditional organizations focus internally, the hyperconnected organization focusesexternally. It puts its top people at the edges, where they form the human touchstones withbusinesses, constituent groups, service providers, communities and R&D sources (see "TheHyperconnected Enterprise: Anticipating the Next Wave of Business").

Forging "Whole Enterprise" Change

In the areas of forging change, business and IT professionals need to immerse themselves inprograms, task forces and initiatives that will alter practices or behaviors in a big way. Fertile areasinclude big-culture technologies, mergers and acquisitions, spurring innovation and businessprocess redesign. This is a realm of diplomacy, emotional intelligence, negotiation and ambiguity.Ironically, despite the intense need for change expertise, the area requires significant improvement,competency development and even "guru"-level expertise. Influencing behaviors and decisionsmeans knowing which stakeholders will be affected, to what extent and how to move the ballforward (see "CIO Advisory: Top 10 Questions You Need to Ask When You Are in the Midst of a




Strategic Change" and "CIO Advisory: Why CIOs Are in the Thick of Wicked Problems and WhatThey Should Do About Them").

Wrap-Up

Gartner's view of the IT professional outlook is designed deliberately to take an Impressionist-likeapproach. Research found within the specific domains for Gartner for IT Leaders and for Gartner forIT Professionals delves into the subdomains.

What we know for sure is that the IT professional outlook through 2016 will cultivate and nourishvarious sweet spots, most of which will demand that IT professionals branch out into new areas oftechnology, information, business processes, relationships and change leadership. While jobdescriptions continue to be narrowly defined, the real work of businesses and institutions demandsa woven tapestry of context, competencies and personal development.

Recommended ReadingSome documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.

"New Skills for the New IT"

"Maverick* Research: Jobs 2021"

"Becoming a Contextual Strategist"

"Survey Analysis: IT Organizations Evolve Structures and Roles to Adapt to the ChangingEnvironment"

"Survey Analysis: IT Organizations Need to Change Skills Mix and Staffing Models to FulfillBusiness Needs"

"IT Metrics: IT Staffing Levels for 2011: Sustaining IT Shared Services and Cloud ComputingPreparation"

"The Future of IT Work"

"2012 IT Professionals Planning Guide: Volatility, Multiplicity, Versatility, and Mobility"

"The IT Professional Outlook: Where Will We Go From Here?"

"Reimagining Your Job"

"CIO Advisory: Build a 'Scarcity Scenario' to Address IT Workforce Planning Risk"

"Enterprise Risk Climbs as CIOs Face an Unsustainable IT Staffing Model"

"The Quest for Talent in a Digital Age: New Thinking, New Challenges, New Assumptions"




"The Quest for Talent: You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet"

Note 1 "Differentiation" Defined

Value as defined by the customer, not by the supplier

Superior understanding of the potential of the industry's supply chain

Superior understanding of changing motivations, value concepts, and decision frames ofexisting and potential customers

This research is part of a set of related research pieces. See IT Workforce: The Road to 2016 andBeyond for an overview.




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Strategic Planning AssumptionAnalysisUpdated IT Professional Outlook: 2012 to 2016Four Domains of ExpertiseTechnology Infrastructure and ServicesInformation Design and ManagementBusiness Process Design and ManagementRelationship Management and Change Leadership

How to Navigate the DomainsA Layered Approach to Context, Competencies and Development

Tracking the Sweet Spots in the Four Domains of ExpertiseTechnology Infrastructure and ServicesMobile, Wireless and Context-Aware ServicesCloud Computing Design and CoordinationSocial Computing Design

Information Design and ManagementInternet of ThingsPredictive AnalyticsInformation Supply ChainInformatics

Business Process Design and ManagementRaising Workforce PerformanceBusiness Process ModelingSocial BPM Design

Relationship Management and Change LeadershipCustomer Experience DesignHyperconnected Enterprise EngagementForging "Whole Enterprise" Change

Wrap-Up

Recommended ReadingList of FiguresFigure 1. Gartner IT Professional Outlook, 2004 to 2016Figure 2. Blending Context, Competencies and Developmental Layers

it professional outlook 2012 226015[1]

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