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

The Demand for Information Technology Knowledge and Skills: An Exploratory Investigation

Organizations are always in search of appropriate information technology knowledge and skills to carry out normal business operations. Such demand is directly impacted by the overall economic conditions. During stressful economic times, managers, facing tough budgetary pressure, are farced to examine more thoroughly what knowledge and skills are needed to survive. This paper investigates the desired information technology knowledge and skills that employers are searching for in these turbulent times. We examine the content ofjob advertisements for information technology professionals placed in an online job placement website over a 2 year period, 2001-2002

Information Technology Wages and the Value of Certifications: A Human Capital Perspective

Although the value of Information Technology (IT) certifications has been widely debated in the IT industry, academia has largely ignored the issue. This study intends to bridge such a gap. Anchored on human capital theory and previous literature, we build a comprehensive model to estimate the value of various IT certifications in terms of their contributions to IT professionals\u27 wages. We estimate our model using third-party survey data. The three main findings from the study are: 1) IT certifications are valuable in general; 2) there is a substitution effect between IT certifications and education and between IT certifications and experience; and 3) the value of IT certifications are job and industry specific. In addition, we estimate wage premiums of various IT certifications in the study. From these findings, we draw managerial implications for current and future IT professionals, IT managers, and human resource managers

The Human Capital Value of OOP

If object-oriented programmers are more productive than other programmers, they should be paid more, assuming that wages are determined based on the value of a worker\u27s marginal productivity. The human capital model is used to assess the current salary premiums of programmers who know object-oriented programming (OOP). While the human capital model employed quantifies this premium, it also controls for the effects of different amounts of technical experience and different levels of education (highest attained degree) that the programmers possess. Using two samples, the incremental value of OOP skills is shown to be about the same over the two different time periods (2000/2001 and 2003)

AMCIS 2007 Panel on IT Service Management: IT Service Management in the IS Curriculum

The fundamental function of information technology (IT), whether internal or external, is the cost-effective provision of IT services that meet organizational needs and align with organizational strategy. With ever-increasing adoption of IT management best practices, industry now leads the academic community by recognizing the need for IT professionals educated in the IT service management (ITSM) processes -- processes directly associated with the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective IT services. This article presents a summary of panel member presentations and subsequent discussions at Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) 2007 concerning the need to, and means for, incorporating ITSM concepts into business-school MIS/IS/CIS curricula. Panel members from industry strongly advocated the importance of including ITSM principles and concepts within business-school IS curricula. Academic members of the panel also articulated this need and described initiatives at their and other schools where ITSM concepts have been or are planned for inclusion in business school curricula at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. ITSM research opportunities, faculty preparedness, and possible resistance from within the IS academic community were additionally addressed

Estimating the Value of Java and C++ Skills

C++ and Java are popular programming languages in university programs. Job postings show that Java and C++ are much in demand technical skills. In this paper, the human capital model was fitted to estimate the salary benefits of knowing C++ and Java. The analysis is based on survey data for 22,488 full-time information systems professionals. Based on the results for this model, we conclude that knowledge of Java produces a much greater salary increase than does C++. Of course, knowledge of both languages is particularly desirable because, as expected, knowledge of both languages results in the largest salary

The Impacts Of Job Characteristics On Is Employee Satisfaction: A Comparison Between Permanent And Temporary Employees

The use of temporary employees in the information systems field continues at a high rate. In order to maintain a quality work environment, an organization must effectively manage both the temporary and permanent work force. A model of satisfaction is constructed based on previous literature and focus groups in three organization that proposes links to satisfaction from the job characteristics of dependence, autonomy, task interdependence, and management support. A survey of employees in public sector and non-profit organizations revealed that both permanent and temporary employees related management support to satisfaction, temporary employees related task interdependence to satisfaction, and permanent employees related job involvement to satisfaction. Follow-up interviews revealed satisfaction of the permanent employees to be negatively impacted by perceived workload imbalances

Assessing Gender Differences in Software Developers Using the Human Capital Model

Previous studies have indicated that discriminatory practices exist in the Information Technology profession. In this paper, we quantify the differences in the current hourly salaries of female software developers with their male counterparts using the human capital model based on economic theory. In addition to the gender factor, the human capital model includes other control variables that may account for the salary differences such as education, experience, and specific skills, such as object-oriented programming and SQL. Our models indicate that gender is still a statistically and practically significant factor in assessing a software developer’s salary