IT roles in future to be more challenging

Manama : IT roles in the future will be more challenging, according to IT service management (ITSM) professionals who responded to a recent survey.

The survey, conducted by ManageEngine in collaboration with ITSM.tools, showed that ITSM professionals are expecting the industry to become more challenging. 

The survey conducted in Bahrain consisted of ten questions that focused on the opportunities and challenges ITSM will see in the future. Eighty-two per cent of ITSM professionals believe that the IT roles of tomorrow will be more challenging — and the majority of the workforce currently feels undervalued by management. 

Cloud technology continues to enjoy positive feedback from ITSM professionals in spite of a major outage. Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t seen as a major job disruptor yet, with only 16 per cent of respondents saying it will affect IT jobs. With an incoming millennial workforce, 77 per cent of ITSM professionals believe that IT teams will have to do more to manage the expectation gap between younger and older employees.

“With a total of 82 per cent of respondents believing that working in IT will get harder over the next three years. Only 15 per cent of survey respondents didn’t think that their life would get harder. As to why there’s a higher response for “Yes, for some IT roles” than “Yes, for all IT roles” - this might reflect that some IT roles are getting harder, or it might just be the very-human assumption that “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” With respondents thinking that they are in a particularly difficult role versus their peers. For instance, service desk agents are usually under far greater scrutiny (and pressure) in terms of performance metrics and targets than most other, if not all, IT roles. Whereas in some areas, such as the management of legacy IT systems, roles might be viewed as being under less pressure and less likely to change,” the report stated. 

“The ITSM industry is continually evolving in response to its micro and macro influencers, like technology, people, practices and government regulations. Being aware of potential future challenges and opportunities helps ITSM professionals stay relevant and responsive to changing landscapes in IT and business, giving their organizations a competitive edge,” said Rajesh Ganesan, director of product management at ManageEngine. 

“It’s interesting — and worrying — that 82 per cent of survey respondents believe that working in IT will get harder over the next three years. There are multiple root causes, including: nearly two-thirds of respondents think that the current local and global political climate is adversely affecting IT recruitment; only 24 per cent of respondents think that existing ITSM best practices have kept up with the changing IT and business landscapes; and 77 per cent of respondents think that there is still more to be done to meet the expectations of millennial employees. Ultimately, as an industry, we still need to invest more in getting modern IT support right,” said Stephen Mann, principal analyst and content director at ITSM.tools.