The+Future+of+Architecture+Roles+and+Skills

InformatIon technology PractIceCIO ExECutIvE BOard EntErprIsE arChItECturE ExECutIvE COunCIl

the Future of architecture roles and skills

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| COntEnt puBlIshIng sOlutIOns

Production designerTodd Burnett

contributing designersSupriya Dhasmana

editorA. Kate Harsh

InformatIon technology PractIceCIO ExECutIvE BOard

EntErprIsE arChItECturE ExECutIvE COunCIl

executive directorsShvetank ShahWarren Thune

managing directorDavid Kingston

Practice managerBart Kaplan

senior directorChris Mixter

Project managerAudrey Mickahail

executive advisorsBrent CassellChristiane GrothAron KuehnemannBill LeeTim MacintyreDorota PietruszewskaKristin SherwoodAlex StilleNat Ward

Quantitative and financial analysis group

managing directorKavitha Venkita

Benchmarking research teamJoydip BosePapia DebroyRumki Saha

EAEC1179911SYN

TABLE OF CONTENTS

executive summary • iv

Introduction • 1

architecture roles and skills in 2015 • 7

drivers of change • 15

appendix: the architecture roles and skills assessment framework • 23

iv

CIO ExECuTIVE BOARD ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTuRE ExECuTIVE COuNCILIT PRACTICEwww.executiveboard.com/it

EAEC1179911SYN

ExECuTivE SummAry

The IT organization of 2015 will look radically different from today. Information management will gain in importance relative to process automation. IT will deliver end-to-end services and become more integrated into a multifunctional shared services group. Most delivery operations will be externalized, increasingly to the cloud, while technology-savvy business partners will take greater responsibility for IT decision making. These are the conclusions of the Council’s research into The Future of Corporate IT. Our conversations with hundreds of IT leaders since the research was published show that many of the changes are already underway.

As a result of these shifts, some roles will be externalized, while others will move out of the central iT organization. Operational roles in areas such as application and infrastructure management and software architecture will be externalized. Twenty-five percent of current IT roles will remain in a central IT organization, while up to 30% will move to multifunctional shared services groups or to business units.

Within the remaining iT organization, strategy and design are ascendant. Higher order skills such as stakeholder management and usability design are gaining importance, driven by information management, service management, and collaboration. For enterprise architecture, the news is usually positive. The IT organization of the future will have a skill profile closer to that of today’s enterprise architecture organization.

Demand for some architecture roles will greatly increase. Enterprise architecture, long playing an advisory role within IT, will need to reorient itself to new organizational structures and dynamics, but IT’s demand for strategy and design will increase. Information architects, business architects, and IT strategists will be beneficiaries in the shifting IT landscape. The Council expects demand for these roles to more than double by 2015.

Service management begets service architects. As enterprises reorganize into services, a new-to-world role for service architects will be needed. These individuals will act as liaisons between business, technical, information, and enterprise architects. Along with the service manager, service architects will be responsible for defining service delivery that supports the strategy and key performance metrics of the service. Combining IT and business expertise, this role will be challenging to fill.

Architecture will be one of the last bastions of technical expertise. Most traditional application and infrastructure delivery roles will be externalized, reducing the pool of internal technical experts by 80%. This concentration of expertise may challenge architects to respond to demand for their technical depth, while also meeting an increased need for strategy and architecture within IT and multifunction shared services groups.

A call to action: Anticipate the talent gaps in your organization. Refer to the skills framework in the appendix of this study to forecast needed skills, and use the job descriptions as a starting point for evolving your architecture organization. Combine training with new hiring opportunities as they become available. Note that the importance of technical skills will decrease relative to business and soft skills, and, as a result, talent sourcing needs to broaden beyond the traditional boundaries of IT.


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1

ThE FuTurE OF ArChiTECTurE rOLES AND SkiLLS

architecture roles and skills in 2015introduction drivers of change

appendix: the architecture roles and skills

assessment framework

The Future of Architecture Roles and Skills 2



For more on these findings, please see the research study The Future of Corporate IT.

FivE ShiFTS ThAT WiLL DrivE rADiCAL ChANgE iN iT TALENT NEEDS

iT organizations face five radical shifts in the way they create value and in their ownership, structure, and role in the coming years.

■■ the five shifts will be driven by 10 external trends affecting It demand and supply, including the rise of the knowledge worker, ubiquitous data, social media, a tech-savvy workforce, and the emergence of technology as a service.

Current State The Future of Corporate iT

1. Business Process First—Business process automation absorbs the largest share of IT investment. Business process design is used to define future capabilities and drive competitive advantage.

information Over Process—The competitive advantage from information technology will shift toward customer experience, data analytics, and knowledge worker enablement. Consequently, information management skills will rise in importance relative to business process design.

2. iT as a Service Provider—Applications and infrastructure are bundled into services that directly reflect business partner technology consumption. The IT function is increasingly centralized as a stand-alone shared service.

iT Embedded in Business Services—Centrally provided applications and infrastructure will be embedded in business services and delivered by a business shared services organization.

3. right-Sourced iT—Delivery combines external provision with significant internal resources as vendors are uncompetitive for many critical tasks.

Externalized Service Delivery—Delivery will be predominantly externalized as vendors expand service provision and internal resources become brokers, not providers.

4. Pressure for Central—Liaison and governanceguide business units and end users away from obtaining their own IT capabilities.

greater Business Partner responsibility—Business unit leaders and end users will play a greater role in obtaining and managing technology for themselves where differentiation has more value than standardization.

5. Fully Functional iT—The scope of the central IT function encompasses strategy, governance, and delivery with direct control of almost all IT–related resources and activities vested in the CIO.

Diminished Stand-Alone iT role—IT roles will embed in business services, evolve into business roles, or be externalized. Remaining IT roles will be housed in a business shared services group. The CIO position will expand to lead this group or shrink to manage IT procurement and integration.

dErF 10-3258

Catalog # ■■ CIO5758610SYN

title

INTRODuCTION ARCHITECTuRE ROLES AND SKILLS IN 2015 DRIVERS OF CHANGE

APPENDIx: THE ARCHITECTuRE ROLES AND SKILLS ASSESSMENT

FRAMEWORK

www.executiveboard.com/It

the fUtUre of corPorate It

CIO6012110SYN

the Future of Corporate Ithow to Prepare for five radical shiftsin It value, ownership, and role

InFOrMatIOn tEChnOlOgY praCtICE

https://www.eaec.executiveboard.com/Members/Popup/Download.aspx?cid=100224307



Introduction 3

mANy rOLES WiLL rELOCATE AS iT iS uNBuNDLEDmany iT roles will relocate or require new skills.

■■ roles requiring business knowledge will become embedded in business units or multifunctional shared services, and those benefiting from scale will be externalized.

Business unit Specific

Requires Technology Knowledge

Requires Business

Knowledge

Industrywide

Skill

Scale

iT

Business units/End

users

multifunctional Shared Services

group

External Providers

greater Business Partner responsibility—Business unit leaders and end users will play a greater role in obtaining and managing technology for themselves where differentiation has more value than standardization. Roles such as business analysts and project managers move here.

iT Embedded in Business Services—Centrally provided applications and infrastructure will be embedded in business services. Information architecture and insight roles and most office of the CIO roles (EA, IT strategy, service manager, account manager, PMO, CISO) also reside here.

Externalized Service Delivery—Delivery will be predominantly externalized as vendors expand service provision and internal resources become brokers, not providers.

dErF 10-5338

Catalog # ■■ CIO6563510SYN

title



FRAMEWORK




NEW CAPABiLiTiES DEmANDED By ThE FivE ShiFTSTo thrive as the five shifts occur, organizations will need new capabilities in architecture, service management, security, and governance.

1. Expanded Architecture to Defend information integration■■ Maintain integrated systems and information while migrating to the cloud.■■ Combine information, technology, and business architecture to enable business services.■■ Plan for device-agnostic IT.

2. Professionalized Service management ■■ Manage business services end-to-end from service strategy to service delivery and improvement.■■ Adopt a challenger profile to reframe business units’ service needs.■■ Make service cost recovery transparent and aligned to business value.

3. Shored up Security for a De-Perimeterized Environment ■■ Assess end user–related vulnerabilities and risks and invest in user awareness.■■ Accelerate policy development for new devices, services, and business-led technology decisions.■■ Help business unit leaders understand and manage their risk exposure.

4. Business Enablement Anchored on a Deep understanding of the End-user Experience ■■ Develop an anthropological understanding of knowledge worker behavioral drivers and decision making.■■ Teach users to collaborate, share information, and generate insight, not just how to use a tool. ■■ upgrade the quality and flexibility of interface design, user experience, and information visualization.

5. redefined Enterprise governance■■ Maintain central coordination of portfolio prioritization, policy design, and standards setting without compromising business partner responsibility.

■■ Combine IT governance with governance of other centrally managed resources.

6. Collaboration Across Functional, regional, and Organizational Boundaries■■ Work seamlessly across regions and functions forming, evolving, and disbanding virtual teams.■■ Manage the performance of external resources and blended internal and external teams.



FRAMEWORK



Introduction 5

A mAP OF FuTurE ArChiTECTurE rOLES

Likely importance and Location of iT roles in 2015

High

Ext

erna

lize

Software Architect

New

-to

-W

orl

d r

ole

s

Service Architect

ro

les

to g

row

Business Architect

Information Architect

IT Strategist

ro

les

to

Tran

sfo

rm

Chief Architect

Enterprise Architect

Solution Architect

Future importance Within the Organization

Heightened Importance

Diminished Importance

Cha

nge

in im

po

rtan

ce

Wit

hin

the

Org

aniz

atio

n

Primary location for the role:

Business units and/or Multifunctional Shared Services IT (Within Shared Services) External Providers



FRAMEWORK




mEThODOLOgy

Future iT Skills research Process

The research used a model of 109 iT skills and 30 iT roles to assess the likely impact on iT talent of the five shifts described in The Future of Corporate IT.

■■ the analysis was supported by interviews and surveys with more than 60 organizations to understand their outlook on future It skills and roles.

■■ for a more detailed description of the analysis, see p. 33 in the appendix.

iT roles and Skills Assessment Framework

Identified and defined 109 skills and 30 roles that currently exist in IT organizations and mapped the skills to the roles

Validated against IT skills frameworks such as SFIA, PROCOM, and job descriptions and competency models from individual organizations

Analysis and Findings

Quantified the impact of the five shifts on the future importance of each skill and role

Identified the future location of each role, highlighting those that move to vendors or become business roles

Identified new-to-world skills and roles implied by the five shifts

Determined the most significant skills shortages and most likely sources of recruitment for those skills

The Future of Corporate IT

Describes five shifts in IT value, ownership, and role over five years; each shift has been assessed for value and risk in a survey of 128 IT leaders

CiO interviews and Surveys

Interviewed and surveyed 60 CIOs and other IT leaders to understand their talent plans and outlook for roles and skills



FRAMEWORK



7


Architecture roles and Skills in 2015Introduction drivers of change






STrATEgy AND iNFOrmATiON rOLES riSE mOST iN imPOrTANCE

Projected Changes to iT roles by 2015

As a result of the five shifts described in The Future of Corporate IT, the iT strategist, business architect, and information architect roles will see the greatest rise in importance.

■■ demand for information architects and business architects will more than double by 2015.

■■ other roles will see lesser increases in importance but will change significantly from today.

demand for these roles is increasing.

demand for these roles will stay constant but will change significantly in responsibilities, skills, or location.

this role will primarily relocate to external providers.

Source: CIO Executive Board, IT Roles and Skills Assessment Framework.

ro

les

to

Ext

erna

lize

Software Architect

ro

les

to g

row

Business Architect


IT Strategist

ro

les

to

Tran

sfo

rm

Chief Architect

Enterprise Architect

Solution Architect

ro

le t

o

Cre

ate

Service Architect

Integrates business, information, and technology architecture to create a service architecture for each business service.

most Significant Estimated Changes in Average Number of Positions required by 2015


Business Architect

IT Strategist

250%

200%

50%



FRAMEWORK



architecture roles and skills in 2015 9

iT LEADErShiP TEAm: WhAT NExT?

Likely Future roles and Locations for CiO Direct reports

The iT leadership team will see significant change as some roles increase in scope, others diminish or evolve, and most move to multifunctional shared services.

■■ the scope of the chief architect and strategist will expand as these roles become part of multifunctional shared services.

CiSO

expands to cover non-It-related risks; likely to be located in multifunctional shared services and report to the head of that group

CiO

iT Strategist

likely to relocate to multifunctional shared services group as a strategist or technology venture capitalist

head of Applications

may become the technology leader, head of Pmo, or technology venture capitalist; alternatively could take a business unit leadership role or a senior position at an external provider

head of infrastructure

may become the technology leader or lead the service managers or technology brokers; alternatively could take a senior position at an external provider

head of PmO

expands to include non-It-related projects and programs; likely to be located in multifunctional shared services and report to the head of that group

head of relationship management

account management declines in importance so the leadership role also declines or evolves to lead service management

Chief Architect

less focus on technology architecture and more on information, business, and service architecture; likely to be located in multifunctional shared services



FRAMEWORK




if you Are… roles to Prioritize Skills to Prioritize

1. investing in information management and Collaboration

■■ Information architect

■■ Data warehousing ■■ Information insight generation ■■ Information visualization ■■ unstructured information analysis ■■ user behavior analysis

2. Establishing End-to-End Business Services

■■ Business architect ■■ Service architect

■■ Global teaming and remote collaboration

■■ Innovation ■■ IT financial management■■ Service strategy formulation ■■ Service architecture development

3. migrating Applications or infrastructure to the Cloud

■■ Chief architect

■■ Contract negotiation ■■ Information policy formation ■■ Integration architecture development■■ usability design

4. managing rising Business Partner and End-user involvement in iT Decision making

■■ Information architect ■■ Business architect

■■ Challenging ■■ Communications ■■ Contract negotiation ■■ Information policy formation ■■ Integration architecture development ■■ Market and competitor analysis

WhAT TO FOCuS ON FirSTPrioritize roles and skills development and recruitment based on which shifts described in The Future of Corporate IT you expect to occur first at your organization.

ROLES AND SKILLS CHANGES

ROLE LOCATIONS

BuSINESS ROLES

IT LEADERSHIP ROLES

ROLE SOuRCING

SKILLS PRIORITIES



FRAMEWORK




DEFiNiNg ThE SErviCE ArChiTECT

New-to-World Skills

■■ Global teaming and remote collaboration

■■ Service strategy formulation

■■ Market and competitor analysis

■■ Service architecture development

Other important Skills

■■ Business architecture development

■■ Business domain analysis

■■ Business process modeling

■■ Challenging

■■ Communications

■■ Information architecture development

■■ Integration architecture development

■■ IT architecture development

■■ Requirement management

■■ Roadmapping

The service architect is responsible for integrating business, information, and technology architecture to create service architectures for each business service.

■■ service architects collaborate with business, information, and technology architects to understand the implications on service architecture.

■■ service architects work closely with service managers to determine the objectives and performance parameters of each service.

key responsibilities

■■ Develops service architecture in support of service strategy

■■ Serves as liaison and partner to other architects in areas such as business, IT, information, and enterprise

■■ Defines service delivery and success measure in coordination with the service manager

Possible Backgrounds and hiring Sources

Likely to combine experience as an architect with roles that provide business exposure

Sourcing Difficulty

Seniority and Organizational Location

middle management

multifunctional Shared Services

vendor

Business unit

iTINTRODuCTION ARCHITECTuRE ROLES

AND SKILLS IN 2015 DRIVERS OF CHANGEAPPENDIx: THE ARCHITECTuRE

ROLES AND SKILLS ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK




SkiLLS TO grOW, mAiNTAiN, Or ExTErNALizEAs a result of the five shifts, certain skills will grow in importance while others will have stable or declining importance within the organization.

■■ skills to grow will increase in importance in the future to meet new and evolving business needs.

■■ skills to maintain will have a similar importance in the future as they have today.

■■ externalized skills are skills that are likely to migrate to external providers.

Category Skills to grow Skills to maintain Externalized Skills

architecture ■■ Integration architecture development

■■ Enterprise application integration

■■ Solution architecture development

■■ Business architecture development

■■ Enterprise architecture development

■■ IT architecture development■■ Technical change management

■■ Network architecture development

■■ Infrastructure architecture development

■■ Application architecture development

Information management

■■ Information architecture development

■■ Information visualization ■■ Information integration ■■ unstructured information analysis

■■ Information analysis and insight generation

■■ Information policy formation■■ Information systems design■■ Information modeling■■ Information asset management

■■ Information taxonomy creation

■■ Data warehousing■■ Data mining

■■ Database design■■ Database management■■ Database programming

service management

■■ Service architecture development

■■ Service strategy formulation■■ IT service pricing

■■ IT continuity management ■■ Incident management ■■ Help desk management ■■ Configuration management ■■ Problem management ■■ Event management■■ Technical resource management

strategy and governance

■■ IT financial management■■ IT governance formulation

■■ Business scenario development

■■ Business strategy formulation■■ IT strategy formulation



FRAMEWORK






FRAMEWORK

kEy FiNDiNgS

1. as a result of the five shifts described in The Future of Corporate IT, the It strategist, business architect, and information architect roles will see the greatest rise in importance. demand for these roles will more than double by 2015.

2. the adoption of cloud computing and service management and a focus on information management and collaboration will lead to the emergence of new, critical It-related roles, including service architect.

3. It strategy, governance, and architecture roles traditionally found in It will migrate to business units and a multifunctional shared services organization.






15


architecture roles and skills in 2015Introduction Drivers of Change






ArChiTECTurE AND COLLABOrATiON TO ThE FOrEThe focus on information management over business process as a future source of value from iT will increase the importance of architecture roles and require new roles to help knowledge workers share and analyze information.

■■ In addition, the focus on stationary data and transient data will see security-related roles risein demand.

Definition: information Over Process

The competitive advantage from information technology will shift toward customer experience, data analytics, and knowledge worker enablement. Consequently, information management skills will rise in importance relative to business process design.

Shift 1—information Over Process

Existing roles with increased importance

■■ Business architect■■ Chief architect■■ CISO■■ Information architect■■ IT strategist■■ Security manager■■ Solution architect

New roles■■ Collaboration and social media evangelist

■■ Head of multifunctional shared services

■■ Information insight enabler■■ user experience guru

resulting iT Skill gaps

Information management■■ Data mining■■ Data warehousing■■ Information insight generation■■ Information visualization ■■ unstructured information analysis

opportunity Identification■■ user behavior analysis

Skills impact

58% Skills Not Impacted

42% Skills

Impacted




FRAMEWORK



Drivers of Change 17

ThE riSE OF ThE SErviCE mANAgErDelivering iT as business services and migrating the iT organization to a multifunctional services group will expand the remit of service managers and change the responsibilities of many architects.

■■ service managers will take on additional responsibilities as they evolve beyond the traditional infrastructure management responsibilities.

■■ for architects, the dividing line between the architecture they are responsible for and the architecture the service manager looks after will change.

Definition: iT Embedded in Business Services

Centrally provided applications and infrastructure will be embedded in business services and delivered by a business shared services organization.

Shift 2—iT Embedded in Business Services


■■ Business architect■■ CISO■■ Enterprise architect■■ IT strategist■■ Service manager

New roles■■ Head of multifunctional shared services

■■ Service architect■■ user experience gururesulting iT Skill gaps

external Provider management■■ Contract negotiation

opportunity Identification■■ Innovation■■ Market and competitor analysis

Project and Program delivery■■ Global teaming and remote collaboration

service management■■ Service strategy formulation ■■ Service architecture development

strategy and governance■■ IT financial management

Skills impact



53% Skills

Impacted



FRAMEWORK




FrOm DELivEry mANAgErS TO TEChNOLOgy BrOkErS AND iNTEgrATOrS

With greater externalization of technology delivery, technology brokers and integration experts will replace many traditional delivery roles.

■■ With greater reliance on external providers, supplier management skills will increase in importance in the dedicated technology broker role and in many other roles across the organization.

■■ With the outsourcing of back-office operations, skills such as business process analysis and design and requirement gathering and management will reduce in demand.

Definition: Externalized Service Delivery

Delivery will be predominantly externalized as vendors expand service provision and internal resources become brokers, not providers.

Shift 3—Externalized Service Delivery


■■ CISO■■ Chief architect■■ IT strategist■■ Service manager

New roles■■ Cloud integration specialist■■ Technology broker■■ user experience guru

resulting iT Skill gaps

application delivery■■ usability design

architecture■■ Integration architecture development


Information management■■ Information policy formation

opportunity Identification■■ Market and competitor analysis

Project and Program delivery■■ Organizational change management

service management■■ Service architecture development

strategy and governance■■ IT financial management

Skills impact



65% Skills

Impacted



FRAMEWORK



Drivers of Change 19

BECOmiNg A TruSTED ADviSOrgreater business partner responsibility places greater emphasis on security, governance, and integration skills as well as roles to advise business partners on technology strategy and opportunities.

■■ at the end-user level, this shift will see the development of skills and roles that will focus on enablement of collaboration, harnessing the power of social media, etc.

■■ Usability designing and testing as a skill will also increase in importance.

Definition: greater Business Partner responsibility

Business unit leaders and end users will play a greater role in obtaining and managing technology for themselves where differentiation has more value than standardization.

Shift 4—greater Business Partner responsibility


■■ Business architect■■ CISO■■ Information architect■■ IT auditor■■ IT strategist■■ Security manager■■ Solution architect

New roles■■ Cloud integration specialist■■ Collaboration and social media evangelist


resulting iT Skill gaps application delivery

■■ usability design




opportunity Identification■■ Challenging■■ Communications■■ Market and competitor analysis


Skills impact



51% Skills

Impacted



FRAMEWORK




ThE CENTEr CANNOT hOLDTraditional iT roles, such as project/program management, vendor management, etc., will migrate into business roles.

■■ the combined effect of the four earlier shifts will be the emergence of generalized skills that were traditionally associated with It.

Definition: Diminished Stand-Alone iT role

IT roles will embed in business services, evolve into business roles, or be externalized. Remaining IT roles will be housed in a business shared services group. The CIO position will expand to lead this group or shrink to manage IT procurement and integration.

Shift 5—Diminished Stand-Alone iT role


■■ CISO■■ IT auditor■■ Security manager■■ Solution architect■■ Vendor manager

New roles■■ Collaboration and social media evangelist


resulting iT Skill gaps application delivery

■■ usability design




opportunity Identification■■ Market and competitor analysis


Skills impact



37% Skills

Impacted



FRAMEWORK



23


architecture roles and skills in 2015Introduction drivers of change

Appendix: The Architecture roles and Skills

Assessment Framework

The IT Talent Implications of the Future of Corporate IT 24





FRAMEWORK

STrATEgy AND ArChiTECTurE–rELATED rOLES

iT Strategist Chief Architect

Creates strategic plans for technology based on an understanding of the business and its technology needs; helps business unit and corporate leaders incorporate technology into their business strategy

Provides leadership in creating, maintaining, and marketing the architectural vision and direction, and is responsible for the overall integrity of the enterprise architecture

required Skills required Skills

strategy and governance■■ IT strategy formulation■■ Business strategy formulation■■ IT governance formulation

opportunity Identification■■ Market and competitor analysis■■ New technology evaluation■■ Business case development■■ Business scenario development■■ Innovation

risk management and security■■ IT risk management ■■ IT standards, procedures, and policies formulation

■■ Risk/return analysis

Business relationship management ■■ Challenging■■ Communications■■ Stakeholder management

Business Process management ■■ Business domain analysis

architecture■■ Business architecture development


opportunity Identification■■ Market and competitor analysis■■ New technology evaluation■■ Innovation

strategy and governance■■ Business strategy formulation■■ IT strategy formulation■■ IT governance formulation

risk management and security■■ IT risk assessment■■ IT risk management ■■ Business risk management ■■ IT standards, procedures, and policies formulation


Business relationship management ■■ Stakeholder management■■ Communications■■ Challenging

Possible Background and hiring SourcesMost likely to have an IT management or IT architecture background

Possible Background and hiring SourcesMost likely to have an IT management or IT architecture background

Note: We referred to our internal job descriptions database, secondary literature, and job descriptions on job portals to create these job descriptions.



Appendix: The IT Roles and Skills Assessment Framework 25



FRAMEWORK

STrATEgy AND ArChiTECTurE–rELATED rOLES (CONTiNuED)

Enterprise Architect Business Architect

Responsible for defining and documenting the enterprise architecture, which provides a holistic view of the organization’s strategy, processes, information, and technology assets

Develops a business architecture strategy for the business unit or multifunctional shared services organization, and analyzes and documents activities, processes, information structures, and governance structures

required Skills required Skills

architecture■■ Enterprise architecture development


■■ Solution architecture development

■■ IT architecture development

opportunity Identification■■ Business case development■■ Business domain analysis

risk management and security■■ IT audit■■ IT risk assessment■■ IT standards, procedures, and policies formulation


Business relationship management ■■ Challenging■■ Communications

architecture■■ Business architecture development

Business Process management■■ Business process modeling■■ Business domain analysis

risk management and security■■ Business risk management

strategy and governance■■ Business strategy formulation■■ Business scenario development

service management ■■ Service strategy formulation

Business relationship management ■■ Stakeholder management

Possible Background and hiring SourcesMost likely to have a background in IT management or architecture

Possible Background and hiring SourcesMost likely to have a consulting or IT architecture background or have worked in a strategy or change role in a business unit







FRAMEWORK

information Architect

Develops and maintains information architecture for the organization to enable knowledge worker productivity and improve end-user experience and decision-making capabilities

required Skills

Information management■■ Information architecture development

■■ Information policy formation■■ Information asset management■■ Information modeling■■ unstructured information analysis■■ Information taxonomy creation■■ Information systems design■■ Information insight generation■■ Information visualization■■ Data warehousing

architecture ■■ Enterprise architecture development


strategy and governance■■ Business scenario development

applications delivery ■■ usability design

Business Process management ■■ Business process improvement■■ Business process modeling■■ Business domain analysis

Business relationship management ■■ Communications■■ Stakeholder management■■ Global teaming and remote collaboration

Possible Background and hiring SourcesMost likely to have a background with a consultant or vendor specializing in information management or information-centric products

iNFOrmATiON mANAgEmENT–rELATED rOLES







FRAMEWORK

Solutions Architect

understands the business needs and requirements; identifies and proposes a technology solution to meet these business requirements

required Skills

architecture■■ Solution architecture development

■■ Enterprise application integration■■ Technical change management

opportunity Identification■■ Business case development

Business relationship management ■■ Stakeholder management■■ Consulting

Business Process management■■ Business domain analysis

Possible Background and hiring SourcesMost likely to have a background in IT architecture or in consulting, communications, or organizational change

SErviCE mANAgEmENT–rELATED rOLES







FRAMEWORK

SkiLLS DESCriPTiONS

Architecture

Business Architecture Development

The skills required to develop a baseline and target business architecture that describes the product or service strategy, organizational, functional, process, information, and geographic aspects of the business environment, based on business principles, business goals, and strategic drivers

Enterprise Application integration

Encompasses approaches, methodologies, standards, and technologies that allow diverse applications to share information, processes, and behaviors

Enterprise Architecture Development

The creation of an organization-wide framework for portraying and incorporating the business processes, information flows, systems, applications, data, and infrastructure that effectively and efficiently support the organization’s needs

integration Architecture Development

The creation of a solution that enables disparate systems to exchange information through the use of adapters or common middleware software

iT Architecture Development

The skills required to study, design, and develop information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware

infrastructure Architecture Development

The skills required to take requirements and constraints defined by the enterprise architect, collaborate with the solutions architect, and design the supporting environment for the solution

Network Architecture Development

The design of specifications for a network’s physical components and their functional organization and configuration and its operational principles and procedures as well as data formats used in its operation

Solution Architecture Development

Similar to application architecture but includes the design and development of multiple applications to achieve a broad set of business objectives

Technical Change management

The management of changes to the production environment and technology-based assets (e.g., application software, production databases, operating system software, hardware)

Note: We referred to IT skills frameworks such as SFIA and PROCOM, Wikipedia, IT magazines such as TechRepublic, CIO.com, ComputerWeekly.com, ITWorld, and ZDNet, and our internal job descriptions database and research studies to write these definitions.






FRAMEWORK

SkiLLS DESCriPTiONS

information management

Data mining The skills required to process data using sophisticated search capabilities and statistical algorithms to discover patterns and correlations in large preexisting databases and to discover new meaning in data

Data Warehousing Knowledge of tools, techniques, and practices for collecting, storing, organizing, and dispensing information from and to multiple sources

Database Design The skills required to produce a detailed data model for a database

Database management The skills required to create, access, and maintain a database

Database Programming The knowledge of a structured query language and its use in creating, accessing, and manipulating data

information Analysis and insight generation

The collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information

information Architecture Development

The skills required to define how information and information systems support the objectives of the business

information Asset management

The management of information that is already known in the organization and could be any combination of content management, document and records management, and authoritative data

information integration The ability to integrate information and content from multiple sources and channels

information modeling The ability to build an information model that represents concepts, relationships, constraints, rules, and operations and specifies data semantics for a chosen domain of discourse

information Policy Formation The skills required to lay down guidelines for information usage and dispensing

information Systems Design The analysis and design of information systems, concentrating on entities and their attributes and interrelationships; also includes data modeling for individual databases and the corporate data model as well as coordinating the definition of data across multiple distinct databases

information Taxonomy Creation

The labeling of categories of related information to assist in information modeling

information visualization The ability to depict information in intuitive and insightful ways

unstructured information Analysis

The ability to derive meaning and insight from unstructured information







FRAMEWORK

SkiLLS DESCriPTiONS

Opportunity identification

Business Case Development The process of creating a well-structured written document that captures the reasoning for initiating a project with the intent to justify the resources and capital investment necessary to bring a project to fruition

innovation A change in the thought process for doing something or the useful application of new inventions or discoveries; may refer to incremental emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations

market and Competitor Analysis

understanding impact of market changes on IT needs and use of technology by competitors

New Technology Evaluation Evaluation of emerging technologies (new-to-company systems as well as those that are new to the information systems industry)

user Behavior Analysis understanding of user behavioral drivers with regard to collaboration, social media, and information creation and use







FRAMEWORK

SkiLLS DESCriPTiONS

Service management

Configuration management The skills required to identify, maintain, control, and verify assets and manage how they connect hierarchically to form business systems

Event management The identification and management of events such as alerts or notifications created by application or infrastructure services and the creation of incident records of these events

help Desk management The ability to manage queries made by users of IT systems, services, and assets typically through a service or help desk function as the first point of contact

incident management The ability to identify and manage unplanned interruptions and reductions in quality of IT services

iT Continuity management Knowledge of approaches, practices, tools, and techniques to develop and administer a contingency and disaster recovery plan

Service Strategy Formulation

understanding of the ITIL3 framework or similar; ability to plan a transition to an end-to-end service management model

iT Service Pricing The estimation of the overall costs of IT services to be delivered

Problem management The ability to identify and proactively manage problems and minimize their impact

Service Architecture Development

The ability to define and establish a framework for the business services available within the organization to support its objectives and goals

Technical resource management

The ability to manage IT infrastructure, people, costs, etc., that are required to deliver an IT service







FRAMEWORK

SkiLLS DESCriPTiONS

Strategy and governance

Business Scenario Development

The process of identifying and developing plans for coping with some of the major business risks the future might hold

Business Strategy Formulation

The process an organization takes to formulate a plan that incorporates cost leadership, differentiation, or focus to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage and long-term success in its chosen areas or industries

iT Financial management Managing and analyzing the IT budget to help business leaders make better investment decisions

iT governance Formulation Specifying the decision rights and accountability framework to encourage desirable behavior in the use of IT

iT Strategy Formulation The process of generating an organization’s overall objectives, principles, and tactics relating to the technologies that the organization uses







FRAMEWORK

Shift 1: information Over ProcessCalculations and Analysisdriver 1: focus on customer experience

driver value: 0.85role required

skillsImpact on skill Importance

current skill Importance for this role

future skill Importance for this role

skill migration (Intuitive)

no. of “m” in skill migration

skill migration (Intuitive)(If “M” > 8, Then Skill Migration = “Migrate,” Else “Stay”)

average current skill Importance

average future skill Importance

average future skill Importance – average current skill Importance

skill migration (Quantitative)


Information Architecture Development

I 75% 138% S (Stay) 2 Stay 60% 90% 30% Stay

Data Warehousing

D 50% 5.5% M (Migrate) 9 Migrate 50% 30% (20%) Migrate

iT rOLES AND SkiLLS ASSESSmENT mEThODOLOgy

We created a framework of 109 IT skills and 30 IT roles based on the SFIA and PROCOM frameworks, job descriptions, and competency models from multiple organizations.

We defined each of the 30 roles by grouping together skills that are required for that role.

We built an assessment model to analyze the impact of 16 drivers identified in The Future of Corporate IT on the importance of each skill when linked to a given role. (See below for detailed explanation of the model and analysis.) The importance of each skill was rated on a 0–100 scale. The impact of the driver was based on a value score given to the driver in a survey of 128 IT leaders.

using quantitative and qualitative analysis, we identified skills that will migrate away from a given role and skills that will become essential for the role in the future that are not required in the current definition of the role.

using the assessment model, we calculated the overall future importance of the role as the average future importance score for all skills required by that role in future. In instances where a new skill was added for a role, we set the current skill importance to 0 and used 25, 50, 75, or 100 as the future skill importance score with respect to that role.

5

4

3

If (average future Importance – average current Importance) for a skill = 0 or is ≥ absolute average of (average future Importance – average current Importance) for all required skills for a role, then put “stay,” otherwise put “migrate.”

3.4Based on the secondary reading and our analysis, put “m” for migration and “s” for stay.

3.3If impact of the driver on the skill importance = “I,” then future skill Importance = current skill Importance + (current skill Importance × driver value). otherwise, future skill Importance = current skills Importance – (current skills Importance × driver value).

3.2With respect to role, what impact does the driver have on the skill’s importance?

(I—Increase, d—decrease, or s—same)

3.1

2

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Documents

The+Future+of+Architecture+Roles+and+Skills