Health Check – The 2010 Impact

“A Restatement”

Going into 2010 we still have many concerns that are impacting our lives (individuals and families), our communities, businesses and the IT industry: mergers, the fluctuating stock market, national and international security, continued business financial difficulties and unmet profit margins, layoffs, and regulations’ (i.e., CFR 21, part 11and HIPAA) requirements issued for the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare industries. Along with the above, the IT industry is having its own difficulties. One major problem is the creation or availability of jobs but not enough qualified individuals to fill the positions. What also affects resource availability is the manpower needed for the possibility of war. Some individuals say this does not have an impact but you can believe it does.

I called it “The Stress of the Times”. Businesses, education institutions, and IT professional organizations must step-up-to-the-plate or continue to step-up-to-the-plate. Putting qualified individuals back to work and developing others should be one of the top priorities for 2010. For the IT industry, companies and professional organizations must continue to offer professional development and training, and IT professionals must continue to pursue education and training. Recovery is ahead for us but only with collaboration and action plans to develop hard and soft skills.

An Important Note:

We must train individuals not to make the same mistakes managing IT projects made during the past decade. We must share lessons learned, transfer knowledge, and develop (revise) processes and procedures to not only help current IT professionals, but new professionals and those that will come on board “tomorrow”. We can no longer allow the attitude of sink or swim to exist, especially with companies’ financial stability and security at stake. Times could get more difficult if we don’t do the right thing at the right time, which is now!