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The Essential Business Skills for IT
The third set of critical skills for IT -- business skills -- are increasingly important. Many of these are people-oriented skills. In fact a 2007 Microsoft-commissioned survey of 500 U.K.-based board-level executives found that 61 percent said that interpersonal and teamwork skills were more important than IT skills.
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According to BrainBench's Kraemer, English and business communications skills are among his firm's most popular courses. The reason: "Companies want to know if this person can communicate in the office place."
In recognition of the need for people-oriented business skills, technical certification courses have started incorporating these types of skills in the curriculum as well. "Our CCDE (Cisco Certified Design Engineer) certification not only certifies technical skills but your ability to respond to an RFP for a business need and present your decision, including how the technology translates to the business problem and why you made the choices you made, and defend that in front of a panel of experts," says Cisco's Beliveau-Dunn.
But in-demand business skills are not limited to people-oriented ones. Some business-analysis skills are also in demand. One is understanding regulatory and compliance issues. Another is the ability to do portfolio analysis, to understand the right mix of capabilities for the business context. "IT modernization is about taking a look at what the portfolio is looking for and recognizing ways to shrink it down," says Gartner's Morello. "You need more sophisticated business insight to do this."
That business insight is critical to succeed in IT's ultimate purpose: helping the business do better. "Your ability to articulate the value proposition of technology to the business your company is trying to deliver is critical," says IDC's Anderson, who suggests stepping out of the IT role for 18 to 24 months as part of an active career plan with your boss or mentor. "Take job rotations in the lines of business," Anderson says. "If you can't do that, then go out and see how the branch office works for 18 months, or become the financial IT liaison."
