Death, Taxes and the IT Skills Drought

Well, we're all aware of life's two certainties - death and taxes. I'd like to add another one to the list. It's the seasonal "where are we going to find mainframe developers" article, survey, study, shocking report, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I give the folks behind the latest survey, "The Mainframe: Surviving and Thriving in a Turbulent World" a lot of credit in addressing the current mainframe skills issues, specifically in the U.K.

Though what consistently comes up in the news versus the community comments is the disconnect between the reports of a widening skills gap and the opportunities that exist today for mainframe experts.

Now I'm not here to debate the validity of either side of the argument. I think the reality falls somewhere in the middle. However, instead of being eager to be right, it's probably a better use of our time to figure out a succession plan.

Smart companies are constantly identifying areas of growth and grooming existing staff to be future leaders. If we applied these same business principles to IT, we may not be facing that self-fulfilling prophecy of such a dire future for those companies that rely on the mainframe.

While protecting and preserving mainframe assets is not a simple feat by any means, there are seven basic principles to succession planning that can be applied.

1. Culture: foster a culture that brings together executives, IT managers and developers so that there a) management is aware of the vital role the mainframe plays in keeping the business running and b) there aren't any surprises if and when the mainframe skills issue affects the organization.

2. Take inventory: figure out exactly what you currently have in-house from a technology perspective.

3. Assess: eliminate technology redundancies and consolidate overlapping software/web services.

4. Identify: the technology and people resources/skills that you'll need in the short and long-term.

5. Collaborate: establish ways to share, transfer and document knowledge and skills. From a developer perspective, instituting policies and IT guidance mechanisms into the infrastructure can decrease learning curves while allowing them to access decades' worth of codified knowledge.

6. Set a realistic time frame: establish a multi-month or multi-year strategy that blends modernization with protecting valuable legacy assets.

7. Focus: don't get distracted by the notion that the collaboration and transfer of knowledge is a massive undertaking. It should simply be the way the team functions.

Of course, modernization is a significant IT mission. Yet when it comes to succession planning for mainframes, there are processes that we can put into place today that won't disrupt the current flow of work.

If you have other thoughts or ideas on applying business succession planning to the infrastructure, feel free to drop me a line.

-Jeff

Six Lessons Learned Six Months In

It's hard to believe how quickly the past six months have flown since I took the helm here at WebLayers. While the experts say this economic downturn is one of the worst, I'm reluctant to subscribe to a wait and see attitude because everywhere I look I see tremendous opportunities.

As I recently reconnected with former IBM colleagues at the IMPACT and Rational Software conferences and as we gear up for this week's HP Software Universe, I'm reminded that there are still a lot of interested and interesting companies that continue to invest in technology.

Of course, more questions are being asked of everybody in this industry. Not to mention longer evaluation cycles and more extensive proof of concepts. For those companies that aren't afraid to have a prospect go deeper under the hood, these can be good times indeed. Especially for smaller organizations that may have been previously overlooked due to a more hasty evaluation process and a short list based on brand recognition more so than niche yet critical capabilities.

While I won't even try to predict how the rest of the year will shake out for the tech industry, I'm reminded of some valuable lessons that have been driven home during the past six months that may also strike a chord with you.

1. Remind your marketing team that cool acronyms and jumping on the buzzword bandwagon to be part of the latest trend shouldn't supersede or undercut the essence of what your technology actually does.

2. Don't underestimate the power of the developer as this audience is critical to ensuring the quality of your products. And with the declining number of computer science majors and the increasing need for mainframe expertise, it won't be long before we're dealing with a full-scale revenge of the nerds if we don't properly prepare and accommodate their needs now.

3. Offshore represents new - not lost - opportunities. Like any business model, you leverage lower cost resources to execute lower priority tasks. If you keep an eye on the way you manage the entire software development life cycle, you'll have greater control over the end product whether it's created onsite or offshore.

4. Don't fear the bear market. Recessions make us more aware and more engaged with regard to the quality of products and services we're delivering.

5. Technology is only one of many industries that will lead us out of the recession. Sure, technology historically been the one industry that led us out of all previous recessions but this time, innovation across all industries will prevail in creating new opportunities.

6. Managing small companies is not unlike leading huge global corporations - focus on the customer, don't compromise quality, and know when to get out of the way.

If you'd like to share any of your lessons learned from this latest downturn, please share your comments and drop me a line.


-Jeff

Why are we still talking about 'dead' SOA?

I'm surprised that the dead SOA conversation continues to have life. The now infamous post by Anne Thomas Manes that appeared at the beginning of this year sparked more debates in the blogosphere than anybody could have anticipated. Hopping on the bandwagon, we even hosted a webinar with Anne about SOA's role in cloud computing titled "SOA: Dead Man Walking in the Cloud."

What surprises me these days, however, is that the conversation/debate is still being held. Just this week, Joe McKendrick's blog over at ZDNet has an entry dedicated to the subject and a post from Manes clarifying the common misunderstanding - the term SOA has lost it's luster yet we need to continue to focus on delivering services that generate measurable business value. Since Joe's always on top of the news, this tells me that the conversations about SOA being dead are far from over.

Now I've spoken to Anne about the post and she raises some excellent points that seemed to have been taken out of context by a lot of folks in the industry. At some point, however, we have to ask ourselves when this 'SOA is dead' debate will die. The more we talk about it, the more life we give it. The bottom line always has been - and will continue to be - that the technology needs to break down the silos, streamline the business processes and simply work so that companies can stay in business. And make a little money.

So for us to get on with the task at hand, can we please let the 'SOA is dead' debate die? By this, I mean we need to focus on the way technology supports the business and not get caught up in the jargon.

This is the last post you'll see on the 'SOA is dead' debate. Perhaps you’ll all join me in this effort to no longer give the topic life.

-Jeff