Communications of the ACM
Five Recession Survival Skills
As a result of the weakening economy, senior-level IT professionals are spending increasingly more time examining the granular details of project costs and motivating staff members, and less time on technology. Anecdotal evidence suggests that IT managers need to focus as much on their leadership and fiscal skills as on their IT skills. In fact, the economy is shaking up CIOs' skill sets and lowering the premium on some traditionally valued traits while putting others in the spotlight. Five skills are considered vital to those leading IT right now.
The most important recession survival skill is being able to help your organization reduce costs. By helping people understand how IT can result in business efficiencies, both senior IT professionals and junior staffers can shine. Usually, this requires combining specialized IT skills with expertise in a specific business area. Another important skill is being able to get noticed by your superiors. This might mean bringing awareness of a new technology to the organization, such as open-source packages that offer new ways to lower development and deployment costs. Or, it might mean finding creative ways to come in under budget while still delivering the expected high-quality services and products.
From Computerworld
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