IT Staffing Trends To Watch In 2010

New technologies, increased outsourcing, and cost-reduction initiatives are changing IT's staffing and skill requirements. To determine the impact, Forrester surveyed 128 IT decision-makers about trends in IT staffing for 13 key roles within IT. What did we find? Roles that touched many parts of the enterprise, such as business analysis and planning, increased in importance the most over the past two years. Furthermore, CIOs use existing employees for roles that require local knowledge or are differentiators and turn to external sources for roles that require highly specialized or hard-to-find skills. Forrester's take: CIOs are getting smarter about understanding strategic IT roles that help deliver differentiated service to the business, and they are staffing accordingly. But to stay ahead of the curve, they'll need to adopt a continuous cycle of assessing skills, identifying future needs, and filling the gaps through a flexible staffing strategy.