Chapter 3
Jas Bassi
Gateley
Reuben Boughton
GW
James Hobbs
HSBC
Mike Lewis
WMGC
Mike Morgan
Hays
Kate Tague
BOA
Michelle Storer
Hays
Prof. Abdul Hamid Sadka
Aston Uni
Mark Simpson
GW
Peter Wainwright
ERIKS
Our board wanted to play around and discuss what the IT team of the future might look like in 5 years time. With AI & Automation moving through the gears so quickly we thought the appropriate place to start would be defining the tech team of the now.
We took the persona of an enterprise IT leader and presumed our tech team would be comprised of 100 staff. We split our IT leaders into two groups so we could look at if there were any areas of differentiation. Below you'll see the framework we used which is widely accepted. Firstly, we split our talent wheel into 3 larger sections; Define, Build and Govern. We then went a step further and split these three sections into job roles:
Analyst / Design / Architect
Developer / Data Engineer / DevOps
QA / Security Specialist / PM
We then added, Product Owner at the heart of our framework, ten roles in total.
Defining where the ‘team of now’ sit
Each group were then challenged to utilise 100 counters and apportion them in the relevant roles to complete our ‘team of now’.
Baseline Modern Day Tech Team: Group 1
Product Owner
3 x Product Owners
Define
6 x Analysts
3 x UX / Designers
7 x Architects
Build
18 x Developers
7 x Data Engineers
19 x DevOps
Govern
7 x QA
9 x Security Specialists
5 x PM / Scrum Masters
Other
10 x EUS & Helpdesk
3 x Asset Managers
6 x Procurement & VM
Defining where the ‘team of now’ sit
Each group were then challenged to utilise 100 counters and apportion them in the relevant roles to complete our ‘team of now’.
Baseline Modern Day Tech Team: Group 2
Product Owner
4 x Product Owners
Define
8 x Analysts
4 x UX / Designers
6 x Architects
Build
18 x Developers
7 x Data Engineers
16 x DevOps
Govern
8 x QA
10 x Security Specialists
3 x PM / Scrum Masters
Other
3 x Legal
3 x Steering Board
5 x Business
2 x Release Management
3 x Third-party Engagement
Roles most in demand
We asked our IT Leaders to vote on the most in-demand roles within their IT teams by using four red stickers each to highlight the positions where they struggle to find true talent.
This revealed that Architects, Data Engineers, and Security Specialists are the hardest to find. At the very top of the list were Architects and Security Specialists. Interestingly, developers were the least sought after, which perhaps indicates the growing influence of automation as well as the increasing importance and concern surrounding modern-day cyber security.
Key business functions like end user support, procurement, asset management, and legal play a crucial role in the success of any IT team.
The roles most in demand from our IT leaders are Security Specialists, Analysts, UX Designers, Architects, and Data Engineers. In contrast, Developers and DevOps are not as sought after. This shift likely reflects the natural evolution of automation and the rise of technologies like Low and No-code.
The biggest skill gaps in the marketplace currently are in Security, Data Engineering, and Architecture. Addressing these gaps will require efforts from recruiters, educators, and employers.
