tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12948038.post4808750958885138783..comments2023-07-29T09:15:17.416+01:00Comments on allan's blog - Agile & Digital Business: A future for software development in the west?allan kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06262139490250478379noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12948038.post-90832456177603858882008-12-24T09:52:00.000+00:002008-12-24T09:52:00.000+00:00Allan, I couldn't agree more. Yet, the trend to se...Allan, I couldn't agree more. Yet, the trend to see development as a service rather than developers as an asset seems to take hold. I don't know if this is good or bad. IT workers (myself included) like to see themselves as assets, but what is really needed to also be seen as one seems less clear. Certainly knowledge of the subject matter (i.e., business) is helpful, but organizations sometimes make it difficult to grow beyond that. Once you start debating your customer on a particular issue you'll often be told that this or that is none of your business. It may be considered an infringement on their property, I don't know. In any event, you might find yourself back in the techie seat again. Working in IT is definitely seen as not a career-enhancing move by business people, that I'm sure of.<BR/><BR/>Apart from that, I am not sure this is really the work we have all had in mind for ourselves. A former colleague of mine went from IT to insurance underwriting within the same company. She returned after a few years, disappointed about the "unstructured" way of working. What are we willing to give up for more job safety? <BR/><BR/>In the end, it's specialization or diversification. I'm confident that development is a dying occupation in the West for almost everyone except specialists and niche players. (Another person I know consults very small businesses only, and yet another acts as "professional customer." Both seem successful.) The number of jobs in the traditional realm - the Java developer who knows J2EE in and out but little aside, for example - will continue to shrink.<BR/><BR/>Flexibility certainly helps, but this is a capability primarily needed in growing/evolving environments. How many jobs these environments will be able to sustain looks uncertain to me. <BR/><BR/>In any event, I've decided to leave the development profession for the above reasons. But, let me add this: I also got bored of it after the umpteenth fad incarnation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com