Opinion

Opinion

IT careers and IT skills

• Byte Night 2014: The link between tech and fighting homelessness

  Tiffany Williams, member of the Byte Night London board and senior enterprise relationship manager at LinkedIn, discusses the importance of sleeping rough for charity  Continue Reading

• It’s no longer a man’s world: The IT girls of the 21st century

  Getting students involved in practical projects is essential in making computing more accessible to girls, says expert from Apps For Good  Continue Reading

• The anatomy of IT projects – why they are difficult and why they fail

  A guide to the complexities of managing successful IT projects, and how to negotiate them  Continue Reading

• BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT: We are investing for the nation's future

  Roger Marshall, immediate past president of BCS, explains how the Institute for IT is investing its cash reserves  Continue Reading

• How does your personality contribute to your success in IT?

  Take part in our ground-breaking study to discover the key personality factors that contribute to success in IT  Continue Reading

• Sketch: Don't panic, it's the hitchhiker's guide to the BCS AGM

  Kevin Cahill gives his (mostly harmless) take on the struggles facing the Chartered Institute for IT  Continue Reading

• Opinion: The Strategic Execution Framework

  Innovation. Agility. Performance. Scalability. Are these among the key initiatives for your company this year?  Continue Reading

• BCS faces 'plebeian revolt' over business reforms

  The Chartered Institute for IT is haemorrhaging money and losing touch with its members, claims a member of the BCS's governing council  Continue Reading

• Where should a CISO look for cyber security answers – hardware, software or wetware?

  While users are often cited as the weakest link in cyber security, they could also be the answer to the problems faced by businesses today  Continue Reading

• Managing the future of complex business and IT landscapes

  IT management and governance must cope with complexity, improve outcomes, and automate processes - but today’s IT delivery model is failing  Continue Reading

• Dark data could halt big data’s path to success

  Dark data – data that lacks any control or classification, but is all too prevalent in many organisations – could halt big data's path to success  Continue Reading

• How to prepare the IT workforce for cloud and mobility    

  CompTIA is working to identify the key skills that staff responsible for cloud and mobility implementations need  Continue Reading

• User acceptance testing needs real training, not just a short course

  In spite of its importance, user acceptance testing (UAT) is often chaotic, problematic and ineffective  Continue Reading

• No apologies – digital government is political

  Shadow Cabinet Office minister, Chi Onwurah, answers criticisms over Labour's digtial strategy  Continue Reading

• Extending your professional Influence: a guide for IT professionals

  Organisations want people who can bring both breadth and depth of expertise, and collaborate successfully with others  Continue Reading

• IT skills shortage still tops the technology agenda

  Many executives in the UK expect to increase investment in IT products and services, but there is an ongoing skills challenge  Continue Reading

• Technology, society and morality: the implications for technology leaders

  Technology is evolving at a pace and scale that has never been experienced. Society is struggling to keep up with the social and moral implications  Continue Reading

• IT contractors: why it pays to be careful about tax

  Well-publicised HMRC crackdowns and new legislation mean that old assumptions about what is legal and what isn’t might not hold true  Continue Reading

• Byte Night 2013 - Thanks a million

  Bye Night, the annual IT industry charity fundraising event, has hit its target of £1m for this year's sleep-out  Continue Reading

• The feminisation of the IT department

  How can you improve the quality of relationships between individuals working in IT and colleagues in business?  Continue Reading

• Byte Night 2013: Tonight's the night

  The IT industry's annual charity sleep-out aims to raise £1m from this year's event, which takes place today  Continue Reading

• How to make IT professionals more effective and happy in their jobs

  The majority of UK-based IT professionals are happy at work as concerns over job security recede, research from Comptia reveals.  Continue Reading

• Enterprise IT skills must keep pace with game-changing technologies

  Virtually all of the most important technologies emerging for businesses require new IT learning, thinking and behaviour  Continue Reading

• How to lead when change is the new normal

  Business leaders need to think about the impact of ubiquitous technology on their future employees and the vastly different expectations they will have  Continue Reading

• An evidence-based approach must underpin digital transformation

  The government IT profession needs to question failings in IT delivery and consider a different approach to business analysis  Continue Reading

• Byte Night 2013: Why bigger is better

  Byte Night, the UK’s largest charity sleep-out event, will be bigger than ever before, with the aim of raising £1m in a single night  Continue Reading

• IT needs soldiers

  The government has recognised that its returning troops can bring value to Britain. Unfortunately it has backed the wrong profession.  Continue Reading

• Giving UK SMEs the digital tools they need

  It is vital that organisations use the digital tools at their disposal to ensure they are able to take advantage of growth opportunities.  Continue Reading

• Reclaiming the role of the CIO

  It has become fashionable to question the value of the role of CIO, but much of this discourse is both self-serving and without foundation  Continue Reading

• Overcoming communication barriers to successful IT implementation

  There are many hurdles to success in an IT project that are principally issues of communication  Continue Reading

• Hot hiring areas in the IT jobs market

  The overall picture in the jobs market over the past year has been mixed, but demand is extremely strong in some areas  Continue Reading

• Why IT education is failing

  There are a plethora of UK IT educational projects and initiatives but no focus or urgency to channel the energy of teachers, says entrepreneur, Rick Chandler.  Continue Reading

• Industry's moral obligation to young people

  More than half of large IT-dependent organisations and most small non-technical, IT-dependent businesses across the UK are stuck in a growth and profits limbo due to shortages of skilled IT staff  Continue Reading

• Agile government: What the UK can learn from the US

  The UK has a unique window of opportunity to learn from the US approach to agile project management  Continue Reading

• How to persuade the CFO to back your IT project

  Michael Blackstaff explains a few techniques that can be the difference between your IT project winning over the board or being left on the shelf  Continue Reading

• Rackspace CTO predictions for 2013

  Rackspace chief technology officer John Engates gives his IT predictions for 2013  Continue Reading

• Five steps to climbing the IT security ladder

  Five steps to help stay ahead of the pack in IT security  Continue Reading

• The DNA of the CIO

  CIOs need to stop ignoring the inevitable and start changing before they are forced to  Continue Reading

• Why we need vocational training

  Charlie Mayes argues the case for vocational learning  Continue Reading

• Did your last presentation make a difference?

  How to avoid death by PowerPoint. Martin Sykes explains the secret of a successful presentation.  Continue Reading

• 4G auction is an opportunity to invest in innovation

  The UK will soon begin to auction the 4G mobile spectrum, raising as much as £4bn. How that money is spent will be a test of what the UK really values  Continue Reading

• The socially intelligent project manager

  IQ alone is not enough to determine project success. Good project managers also require social intelligence  Continue Reading

• Where is your Data Migration DMZ?

  Johny Morris, author of Practical Data Migration, looks at how changes to procurement practices have created a trap for the unwary to fall into  Continue Reading

• How to make effective use of social media in your job search

  Useful advice on using various social media platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn to land your next IT job  Continue Reading

• IT's growth / austerity paradox

  As the political world argues about economics, one of the intriguing things about IT is its ability to drive both growth and austerity  Continue Reading

• Why Tesco chose open-source software

  Jane Williams, head of e-learning at Tesco, explains the challenges of delivering an open-source system at the retailer  Continue Reading

• Building trust and transparency into business culture

  As controversy over the Libor fixing rate continues, ethics and transparency are highlighted as priorities for company executives  Continue Reading

• Why are we making 'lose-lose' technologies?

  With access to the lowest interest rates in history, corporates are undertaking a massive capital-intensive restructuring where technology is quietly replacing human jobs  Continue Reading

• Addressing the IT gender imbalance with courage and collaboration

  Mortimer Spinks's managing director discusses the results of the Women in Technology survey 2012  Continue Reading

• Forrester: Networking predictions for 2013

  Senior Forrester analyst Andre Kindness reveals his predictions for the networking industry in 2013  Continue Reading

• Ovum view: The future of software development

  Agile programming is clearly part of the future, IT professionals at Computer Weekly's 500 Club heard last month, though there was tacit agreement among the speakers that agile the verb was key here, and not agile the noun  Continue Reading

• Why IT contractor salaries are rising

  Overall contract rates in London have increased 3.4% year-on-year, which is indicative of where employers’ priorities lie at the moment, with many looking to bring in IT specialists capable of making key improvements on a project basis, according to...  Continue Reading

• Six steps to plan and prioritise IT investments

  IT service management can play an important part in identifying the right IT investments to make.  Continue Reading

• Byte Night 2012: 15 years in the making

  Byte Night, the annual IT industry fundraising event, celebrates its 15th anniversary on this year's 5 October sleep-out.  Continue Reading

• IT careers: Why relationships are everything

  Former CIO, Dr Robina Chatham, explains why building relationships is the most important IT skill.  Continue Reading

• Professionalising service management will help IT take its seat at the top table

  IT service managers should be at the forefront of efforts to take IT into the boardroom. The present dearth of CEOs who come from an IT background in the UK is a major concern.  Continue Reading

• Three key considerations to deliver benefits from big data

  There is a real commercial advantage to be gained from big data and organisations need to make sure they have the right elements in place to seize that advantage.  Continue Reading

• How tech geeks in Africa are transforming IT education

  Zambia, like the UK, is awash with unemployed graduates. But tech geeks in Africa are helping each other to fill the gap left by deficient education.  Continue Reading

• What will training look like in the workplace of the future?

  Kevin Young (pictured), head of SkillSoft EMEA, explains the impact of technology on education  Continue Reading

• IT service management: The only way is ethics

  It is now very common for professional bodies and membership organisations to have codes of ethics and standards of conduct.  Continue Reading

• Providing work experience to close the skills gap - give IT to those who want IT

  Many IT employers still complain of a lack of suitable recruits on the job market. What role could work experience play in closing the IT skills gap?  Continue Reading

• Women in Technology: Learning the rules of a boys' game

  Maria Ingold, CTO of FilmFlex Movies, shares her experience of working in the male-dominated technology industry  Continue Reading

• UK must invest in skills to ensure future IT innovation

  Young people may learn how to use PowerPoint at school, but they lack the innovative ICT skills businesses really need  Continue Reading

• Can Raspberry Pi transform the sorry state of IT education?

  Is the $25 Raspberry Pi – a basic computer on a single printed circuit board - capable of transforming the sorry state of IT education in our schools?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: How to prepare for EU data protection rules (part 3)

  If your CIO has little board input or budget responsibilities, now is the time to make these changes – to empower the CIO with budget responsibility and board influence  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Is big data just big hype?

  If the deluge of headlines and vendor marketing materials is anything to go by, big data is the next big thing. So how much is there really to all this big data talk?  Continue Reading

• Forrester: Agile development

  Application development leaders are looking to adopt agile computing methods, says a Forrester survey of more than 200 IT executives.  Continue Reading

• Social media and IT support - which side is your bread buttered?

  While IT underpins the social media revolution, IT managers are only scratching the surface when it comes to using these tools to improve IT service and support.  Continue Reading

• How to be headhunted

  The best candidate for a job might be happy in their current role and not actively on the job market - but still the target for a headhunter.  Continue Reading

• The top seven mistakes IT executives make

  Global IT spending is forecast to increase slightly this year. But will IT executives spend the money effectively?  Continue Reading

• Rising to the information management challenge

  In a world of increasingly devolved decision making, few would disagree that it’s important to make the right information available to the right people at the right time.  Continue Reading

• Forrester: Big data – start small, but scale quickly

  At extreme scale, traditional data management and business intelligence become impractical and companies do not get what they demand — more insight to drive greater business performance.  Continue Reading

• IT industry must play its part in improving IT in schools

  IT in schools has been in the news recently with the UK government announcing the withdrawing of the GCSE ICT curriculum and the debate around the Royal Society report focusing on the lack of computer science teachers.  Continue Reading

• Innovation's dirty little secret

  Innovation has a dirty little secret. It is unspoken, so swept under the carpet that most executives are unaware of it: breakthroughs don't really pay.  Continue Reading

• Top 10 project management trends for 2012

  Collaboration is a common theme throughout many of the 2012 top 10 trends for project management, according to a panel of experts.  Continue Reading

• itSMF UK: Back to reality in 2012

  Wherever you stand on the optimist/pessimist scale, the beginning of a new year is always an opportunity to look ahead.  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Cloud, mobility, social among top infosec challeges for 2012, says ISACA

  What is the most important nut for infosec to crack in the coming year and why? Global IT security association ISACA gives its views.  Continue Reading

• Mobile security among top priorities for 2012

  Solving security issues relating to the use of mobile technologies will be among the most pressing priorities for businesses in 2012.  Continue Reading

• Security skills gap to become crucial in 2012, says (ISC)2

  The emerging threat in the developing cybersecurity skills gap is an issue (ISC)2 has highlighted throughout 2011, and 2012 will be the year when industry really begins to feel it, particularly in London with the Olympic Games coming to town.  Continue Reading

• Need ideas for improvement? Ask your customers

  Continual service improvement is a key tenet of IT service management and a fundamental part of the ITIL service lifecycle.  Continue Reading

• How to stay on top of IT training and development

  In an increasingly competitive world, IT professionals need to keep their knowledge and skills up to date while organisations seek to retain their top talent.  Continue Reading

• Establishing the profession of IT service management

  Are you a service management professional? Or an IT professional specialising in service management? Either way the number of people who consider IT service management (ITSM) a true profession has grown exponentially over the last few years.  Continue Reading

• Byte Night 2011: The generous generation

  Technology is turning young people to donate to charity in new ways - helping the IT industry's annual Byte Night fundraising event.  Continue Reading

• Top skills for IT managers - Part 6: Change management

  Mergers, acquisitions, redundancies and other organisational changes often create anxiety and uncertainty because such business changes affect every level of an organisation.  Continue Reading

• Business-critical projects ensure strong IT recruitment despite economic fears

  There has been a distinct split between organisations favouring caution and avoiding permanent recruitment, while others have continued to implement strategic and operational plans intended to support organisations' future success.  Continue Reading

• Security Zone: Utilising a dedicated network test team to enhance security and reduce vulnerability

  In recent times we have witnessed multiple successful attacks on the network and infrastructure at various large organisations, writes Mugdha Raje, member of the Ethernet Testing and Certification group at AT&T Labs.  Continue Reading

• Court ruling on self-employed contracts could make IT managers liable for tax bill

  Many IT workers who should be considered "employed" are working on a self-employed basis and, in the light of a Supreme Court ruling, this could unexpectedly land IT managers with tax and National Insurance bills.  Continue Reading

• The importance of mutual understanding: A faster track to business alignment and satisfied users

  The benefits of a service-centric approach to IT tend to come back to IT in numerous ways - users are happier, the business functions more effectively, and in return IT tends to receive both more funding and freedom to develop, writes Andrew Buss, ...  Continue Reading

• Top skills for IT managers - Part 5: Coaching and mentoring

  It is no secret that people tend to absorb only 10% of their knowledge from formal training, 20% from working with role models and 70% from on-the-job experiences. In other words, people learn best by observing a master at work, then applying those ...  Continue Reading

• 'Surround Sound' IT training: A multi-dimensional learning approach

  According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the annual training budget for 46 percent of British organisations ranged between £50,000 and £1,000,000 in 2010 alone. But is that money going to waste? The latest training research...  Continue Reading

• Byte Night 2011: Why size doesn't matter for CSR

  Byte Night board member Mike Barrett says you don’t have to be a big company to build charitable work into your business - all companies can give something back and make a difference.  Continue Reading

• Underinvestment erodes UK knowledge economy and blunts competitive edge

  It is somewhat ironic - particularly to non-British observers - that the country that shaped the industrial revolution and the process of globalisation through its outward expansion of empire should have such difficulty in sustaining a competitive ...  Continue Reading

• Byte Night 2011: Why IT matters

  As technology professionals, you are unlikely to need convincing that IT matters, but I am a strong proponent of the belief that, right now, IT has never mattered more, writes Ken Deeks.  Continue Reading

• Open University prepares students for the business-focused reality of IT

  The stereotypical view of an IT worker separated from their organisation in a windowless basement is increasingly far removed from the reality of the role, writes Kevin Streater, executive director for IT employer engagement at The Open University.  Continue Reading

• Top skills for IT managers - Part 3: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

  In this six-part series, Joseph R. Czarnecki, project management specialist and senior consultant at ESI International, identifies six top business skills at which every IT project managers needs to excel.  Continue Reading

• Byte Night 2011: IT takes to the streets in the fight against youth homelessness

  Last week, many IT professionals stood together in the offices of BDO Stoy Hayward in Baker Street, London, to pledge support for the launch of Byte Night 2011, the IT industry's annual sleep-out which supports Action for Children's fight against ...  Continue Reading

• IT teams signing up to CARE IT Adventure Challenge

  Teams from across the IT industry are signing up to challenge themselves and challenge poverty in the CARE IT Adventure Challenge supported by Computer Weekly.  Continue Reading

• Top skills for IT managers - Part 1: Establishing a business mindset

  In this six-part series, Joseph R. Czarnecki, project management specialist and senior consultant at ESI International, identifies six top business skills at which every IT project manager needs to excel.  Continue Reading

• High touch is just as important as high tech

  The promise of any form of communication technology, whether paper, the printing press or a PC, has always been to help people connect more effectively. On this measure, the explosion of IT in the last two decades has been disappointing. We all know...  Continue Reading

• Are you a natural risk taker? Take our free personality test to find out

  Managing IT risk in today's cyber economy is a high priority. New standards and regulations focus on operational risk management – weighing risk against reward and building in systems and procedures to try to reduce or eliminate risk.  Continue Reading