Developments in Practice XI: Developing IT Professionalism

Recent conversations with IT managers suggest that IT professionalism is a growing problem for them and for their organizations. Managers are frustrated that many of their newer employees simply don’t understand what it means to “be professional” in their job. Neither schools nor companies teach professionalism. Instead, it remains an unarticulated set of working behaviors, attitudes, and expectations. Yet IT professionalism has never been more important. Teamwork – with users, vendors, consultants and business partners – is the name of the game today, and with it comes an increased dependence on and interaction with others. Today, IT workers are being held accountable to this new, unwritten set of standards that governs not only their work and how they, themselves, are perceived, but also how the whole of IT is perceived by the rest of the organization and others outside it. This paper provides a composite picture of IT professionalism and how to develop it.