Communications of the ACM
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Communications of the ACM
The Professional Development Challenge For It Professionals
In today's dynamic and competitive business environment, IT professionals, especially those in mid-career, constantly deal with the pressure of management, self, and industry expectations. Maintaining competence is a continuous challenge resulting from the continuous stream of technical innovation in applications, as well as the capability, diversity, and complexity of IT and the importance of IT innovation in the overall performance of organizations. Addressing this challenge requires they participate in professional development that imparts the most prized IT knowledge and skills. It also requires significant management support in providing them access to effective development programs and the motivation to get them to participate.
The most important question facing IT professionals is not whether substantial professional development is necessary but rather how to balance personal life and work assignments while maintaining the appropriate level of professional competence necessary to accomplish professional goals. The degree to which IT professionals lack appropriate competence hurts their employability, as well as their organizations' adaptability and promise of future competitiveness [7]. Therefore, to maximize personal potential for life-long employability, IT professionals have no choice but to maintain high levels of competence through rigorous and regular professional development.
The value of that professional development is supported by prior studies reporting significant performance differences between highly skilled and relatively mediocre IT professionals [1]; professional development substantially increasing the performance of even the most experienced IT professionals [5]; and the general perception by IT professionals that their existing professional competence is deficient in many areas [6].
Here, we report on the findings of an extensive research study conducted by MIS faculty at the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL. The study examined a number of important issues relating to the professional development and competence of IT professionalslike whether they value having up-to-date skills, which forms of professional development they favor, and which barriers are most likely to prevent them from taking courses.
The Premise
The study's premise was straightforward: IT professionals who want to maintain an appropriate degree of professional competence need effective professional development (see the boxed list here). But because participation is generally voluntary, they have to be personally motivated to maintain that competence before they are willing to participate. In this light, the study (see Table 1) sought to determine the following measures of accomplishment concerning IT analysts:
- The relationship between professional motivation and development and professional competence;
- The participation levels and effectiveness of development activities; and
- The effect of work and social commitments on professional development.
Since not all IT positions require the same knowledge and skills, the USF researchers chose to study systems analysts and programmer/analysts (analysts) for several reasons: First, they represent two of the three core IT occupational categories identified and tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and two of the four core IT occupations of concern for the U.S. Department of Commerce [9]. (The other two core IT categories are computer engineers and computer scientists.) Second, according to ongoing evaluations of BLS statistics conducted by the Office of Technology Policy for the U.S. Department of Commerce [8, 9], the number of analyst positions is projected to grow substantially, from 506,000 in 1996 to 1,025,000 in 2006. This increase represents almost 520,000 new jobs, a 103% increase. Third, because of their boundary-spanning role in organizations, analysts need strong interpersonal skills, as well as technical and organizational knowledge, to be professionally competent.
All of the study's data was collected through a confidential questionnaire completed by 172 participants from 12 organizations in Florida. Table 1 outlines results concerning industries represented and participants' demographics; for example, 72.1% of those surveyed were 30 to 49 years of age; 68.7% had at least a bachelor's degree; and 27.3% had been employed as IT professionals fewer than five years, reflecting the growth in demand for the position. Interestingly, 37.2% were women, a finding consistent with the trend reported in [4] that women make up an increasing percentage of analysts (26.4% in 1982, 32.4% in 1990).
Motivation
The study examined professional motivation in two ways: First, participants were asked to indicate their professional competence ranking compared to their peers, based on three levels of development effort: "slight" (one hour of participation in development activities/month); "moderate" (four hours/month); and "extensive" (nine hours/month). For example, nine participants (5.3%) indicated moderate development effort would put them in the top 10% of professional competence, while 87.1% thought it would put them in the top 50% (see Table 2).
The weighted average for each effort level indicates expected professional competence is positively related to development effort. This finding is important because it implies that IT professionals believe professional development improves competence.
Other interesting findings include: 65.7% of survey participants believe that an extensive development effort would put them in the top 20%, though almost half (48.5%) believe they can maintain average (top 50%) professional competence with only slight development effort. We interpreted this finding as indicating that these analysts believe being competitive with most other analysts and staying in demand by organizations requires little development effort; however, we also found that being at the top of the profession requires substantial development effort. Thus, it appears that IT professionals believe in a link between professional development and competence but also that only a limited development effort is needed for those satisfied with being only moderately professionally competent.
Participants were then asked to estimate the probability of 10 work-related outcomes occurring if they maintained "high" professional competence. The results show that competence is significantly related to performance, that is, the effective and efficient completion of work assignments, as well as personal feelings of satisfaction with those assignments (see Table 3). They also show that professional competence is to a lesser degree related to job security, decision authority, admiration by colleagues, and the likelihood of being assigned to challenging and interesting jobs.
Somewhat surprising, however, the results also indicate these analysts perceive a relatively moderate relationship between maintaining high professional competence and being rewarded financially or being given opportunities for promotion. Since professional competence and performance are related, the participants apparently feel their work environments do not adequately link professional competence and performance to financial rewards and promotional outcomes.
Systematic Enhancement of Knowledge
Professional development is the systematic maintenance, enhancement, and broadening of knowledge and skill, along with the development of personal qualities (values and attitudes) necessary for fulfilling assigned responsibilities.
The study examined both the degree of participation and the effectiveness of participants' development activities. First, it presented them with a list of eight formal and nine informal development activities, asking them to estimate the average hours per month they spend on each activity. They were then asked to rate the relative effectiveness of each activity. Table 4 outlines the results; the first three columns are the percentage of analysts averaging "0 Hours," "12 Hours," and ">2 Hours" of participation per month. In-house training is the most common formal activity, with almost 68% participation. Similarly, reading professional magazines is the most common informal activity, with 89% participation.
An alternative way of viewing the popularity of development activities is based on hours spent on each activity. For example, "Hours/Month" in Table 4 lists all participants' average hours per month on each activity. On average, they reported spending almost 14 hours/month on formal activities and another 30 hours/month on informal activities, a total of 44 hours/month participation. Prior research suggests that professionals in dynamic fields focus at least 20% of their time on professional development [2]. The results of the USF study suggest that analysts should likewise make a comparable development effort.
Since a significant percentage of survey participants reported "0 Hours" in each formal activity, the average hours/month for those reporting at least some participation in each formal activity is included in parentheses next to the average for all participants. This information reflects the amount of effort typically required for each formal activity; for example, participation in certain formal activities (such as attending college courses) is much more time consuming than other formal activities.
The column "Activity Effect" in Table 4 reflects participants' view of development activity effectiveness on a scale of 1 to 6 (1 = inferior, 6 = excellent). They generally perceive "vendor-supplied training" as effective and "attending professional society meetings" as only marginally effective formal activities. Likewise, "experimenting with new products" is viewed as the most effective informal activity, while "self-study videotapes or multimedia" is only marginally effective.
The vast majority of surveyed analysts participate in professional development90% in formal activities and over 99% in either formal or informal activities combined. There is, however, considerable individual and organizational variation in professional development efforts. In four of the 12 surveyed organizations, analysts average less than eight hours/month in formal activities, whereas almost every organization reported little variance from the average (30.6 hours/month) in informal activities. This finding was reflected in the four largest organizations, which averaged 30.7, 32.2, 30.2, and 32.3 hours respectively on informal activities and 30.2, 9.8, 12.3, and 20.2 hours of participation in formal activities. Because of the wide variation in participation in formal activities and the minimal variation in informal activities, the study researchers concluded that formal activity participation might be a better indicator of overall organizationally inspired motivation for maintaining professional competency. Perhaps time spent in informal activities is viewed by the participants more as a way to simply get a particular job done rather than as an effective method for planning professional development agendas and gaining new knowledge and skills. Interviews with a subset of the participants revealed a desire for significantly more formal trainingand that they muddled through using informal learning modes, since their organizations were unwilling to fund additional formal training.
Barriers to Professional Development
Many IT professionals in numerous studies, including the one at USF, acknowledge a need to participate in professional development if only they could find the time. In order to determine the effect of work and social commitments on professional development, USF study participants were asked to rate on a 6-point scale (1= "none," 6 = "extensive") whether five commitments limited their participation. Table 5 shows, for example, that few of them view work location as a significant limitation, with almost 50% reporting none. In contrast, project deadlines are reported to be a substantial barrier to professional development. Of the three socially oriented commitmentssocial, family, recreationalonly family commitment appears to be a limitation, though its effect is relatively mild. It appears that family commitment may pose only a moderate barrier to professional development, while project deadlines represent the most significant barrier.
Associations in study variables. The researchers conducted correlation analysis to examine the associations among professional motivation, professional development, and professional competence. All relationships were statistically significant and demonstrate that motivation is related to professional development and that participation is related to knowledge levels.
Moreover, the effect of professional motivation and development on professional performance is greater when you consider its relationship to overall professional knowledge, then recognize the strong link between this knowledge and personal professional performance. This finding suggests that professional development affects professional performance through its contribution to enhanced professional knowledge.
Implications
The study's findings have significant implications for both IT professionals and overall corporate management. For IT professionals, the most important is a consequence of the contribution IT innovations have on the IT work environment and performance of enterprise systems. Analysts benefit financially from demand for IT innovation, in turn creating tremendous demand for competent IT professionals. IT professionals with the most valued competencies are heavily recruited by organizations offering employment contracts with better salaries, along with signing bonuses, stock options, and work culture inducements, including enhanced work arrangements and lifestyle accommodations [3]. However, they also face the need to maintain their professional competence in an environment of dramatic IT innovation continuously revising the definition of the domain's preferred knowledge and skills. Staying professionally competent requires substantial effort and participation in effective development activities, despite the demand for their current competencies. Over time, complacent IT professionals inevitably witness their competencies become obsolete and their contributions diminish due to the diffusion of IT innovation and its resulting contribution to overall organizational performance.
For corporate executives, the major implication is that they, too, have to understand the conflicting pressures on IT professionals and institute programs that mitigate the potential barriers to their professional development. Organizational professional development should help IT professionals identify future skill needs and competencies, then motivate them to participate in the activities that result in desired competencies and provide flexible schedules making it more likely that participation will occur. While some organizations fear losing IT staff who improve their competencies, others realize that fear of obsolescence is a major reason for turnover and that focusing on professional development yields greater retention, higher morale, easier recruitment, and ultimately enhanced productivity [10].
Organizational professional development programs should be designed to address all aspects of IT professional employment. For example, the hiring process should not focus exclusively on IT professionals with the desired competencies of the moment but evaluate candidates' career commitment and motivational level. This evaluation can be accomplished through a recruiting process that determines candidates' personality characteristics, including efficacy to learn, motivational attitudes, and growth needs. Since people with strong growth needs are stimulated by personal accomplishment, learning, and mastering a continuous variety of challenging tasks, such people seem well suited for the continuing challenge of professional IT development.
References
1. DeMarco, T. and Lister, T. Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams. Dorset House, New York, 1987.
2. Dubin, S. The psychology of keeping up-to-date. Chemtech 2, 7 (July 1972), 393397.
3. Ferratt, T. and Agarwal, A. Coping with Labor Scarcity in Information Technology: Strategies and Practices for Effective Recruitment and Retention. Pinnaflex Educational Resources, Inc., Cincinnati, 1999.
4. Frenkel, K. Women and computing. Commun. ACM 33, 11 (Nov. 1990), 3446.
5. Humphrey, W. A Discipline for Software Engineering. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1995.
6. Nelson, R. Educational needs as perceived by IS and end-user personnel: A survey of knowledge and skill requirements. MIS Quart. 15, 4 (Dec. 1991), 503521.
7. Stewart, T. Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations. Doubleday Publishing, New York, 1997.
8. U.S. Department of Commerce. America's New Deficit: The Shortage of Information Technology Workers, Washington, D.C., Sept. 1997.
9. U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Technology Policy. The Digital Workforce: Building Infotech Skills at the Speed of Innovation. Washington, D.C., June 1999.
10. Watson, S. Train to retain. In the supplement The 100 Best Places to Work in IT. Computerworld (June 28, 1999).
Tables
Table. Major findings of the USF study.
Table 1. Industries represented and demographics (total of 172 participating analysts).
Table 2. Expected competence ranking as development effort varies.
Table 3. Professional competence and work outcomes.
Table 4. Professional development participation and effectiveness.
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