The Changed Decision Model for Enterprise Technology
From "Special Report (sidebar)",  Access to Wang, March 1996
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Most of this discussion has been on the survival of the organization's information systems and providing a productive systems for the business purpose. What about your role in this new hierarchy? How will you survive the changes to your own organization - changes you might have brought on yourself?

One answer: you won't survive - at least, not with the job you presently have. With changing requirements for information and differences in the tools to use it, skills in traditional MIS job categories are expected to decline over time. The amount of time this process will take is not known, but the process seems inevitable - and resisting the change too much can be even more dangerous. (For further discussion of this point, see "The Changed Decision Model for Enterprise Technology" elsewhere in this issue.)

If you accept this thesis, what are the skills you will need to have to remain a part of the industry? And how will can you get the skills and experience you need?

Though many elements of the new information systems development environments are the same as before, there are important differences in design and vocabulary. You will need to impress decision makers with your grasp of these differences; otherwise, you may be associated with prior development models, perceived as inflexible, and passed over for retraining in favor of others. It is important to understand and be able to articulate the differences in the new environments even if you do not have direct working experience in them.

Don't overlook the value of your experience: your understanding of the needs of the organization is a very important part of the success of its information systems. Unfortunately, these skills are too often regarded as unimportant and you may have to market yourself and your experience within the organization as never before.

Surviving a change in technologies means you must take the offensive and lead the organization to this change, hopeful that your management will repay your leadership and vision with loyalty and support for your own career change.

For further information on IS career trends, look into these books:

Downsized but not Out
Alan Simon
McGraw-Hill, New York, N.Y.; 1995
ISBN 0-07-057615-7

Decline and Fall of the American Programmer
Edward Yourdon
Yourdon Press/Prentice-Hall; 1992
ISBN 0-13-203670-3