Devil's Advocate: The IT workforce - the wrong sort of people?

As silicon.com takes its annual snapshot of the IT skills market (http://www.silicon.com/ss2002 ), Martin Brampton wonders whether IT just doesn't reach out to the right type of professional.

It is hard to avoid thinking of the old British Rail excuse of "the wrong sort of snow" but apparently there is serious evidence for the claim that IT in the UK is done by the wrong sort of people. One problem is that there are only half as many 'finishers' in IT as in other sectors. Apparently that is why so many projects are never completed, according to recently released research.

Things may not be as bad as they seem, though.

First, we might wonder about which is cause and which effect. Is it the case that the people in IT are naturally reluctant to finish things? Or is it that they have got so used to not finishing things that it becomes second nature? It is hard to be sure.

Even if we suppose that it is the character of IT people that is at fault, this kind of observation poses a problem that is rarely addressed. We frequently hear that this, that or the other sector of society has too few individuals of the required calibre. What is forgotten is that the only way to remedy this state of affairs is to take the individuals we want from another sector.

So where are all the finishers? Maybe they are in industry. UK manufacturing has done remarkably well in recent years, constantly battling with a highly valued pound. Although there was a time when manufacturing was deemed old fashioned and ready for replacement by modern service industries, it soon dawned on people that most international trade is made up of manufactures and not services.

An exception to this is the financial services sector, another area of UK strength. Maybe that has a high proportion of finishers? Well, we would need to be careful about damaging that sector. It seems to be in our interests to have a lot of money flowing through the City of London, a portion of which we are able to keep for ourselves.

If we have all these people who cannot finish things, maybe IT is one of the less harmful places for them to be. There could even be advantages. Recently, the US economy has been in a poor state, following the pricking of the high-tech bubble. The UK has fared much better. Despite some tightening of purse strings, there is no sign of an actual general recession. Perhaps this is because we did not have a high-tech bubble: we never got round to finishing ours.

Although the IT world lacks finishers, apparently it is full of enthusiasts. That is hardly news! Isn't a software developer the kind of person who would rather spend a week writing a tea brewing program than get up and make a cup of tea?

Unfortunately, the research points to another weakness, lack of perfectionism. So the tea brewing program is unlikely to make a decent cup of tea. Apart from never being finished, it will also fail to follow the correct procedure in important details.

On a comparison with Canadian IT people, those in the UK show up as much more resourceful. I suppose they would have to be, in order to think up excuses for all the projects that were enthusiastically started, imperfectly implemented and never quite finished. Interestingly, the picture that is painted is sounding very much like the traditional British concept that the world should be run by gifted amateurs, enthusiastic but lacking in practical competence.

Now we have firm evidence to confirm our suspicion that IT people are a rum lot. It looks as though we should be looking around other sectors to find some less enthusiastic but perfectionist finishers. Will we ever be able to complete the task though?