Managing IT Talent: Building a People Architecture

Dateline: April 4, 2014

Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend.

CIO.com recently published an article about the need to rethink how we manage IT talent.  Senior writer Rich Hein interviewed David Foote, cofounder of Foote Partners and expert on the people side of IT management and wrote about building a people architecture.

Businesses understand the value of architecture when it comes to their objectives or their data or software, but most companies don’t understand that architecting people is an equally important task. David Foote, Chief Analyst and cofounder of Foote Partners, says that what he dubs “people architecture” is what’s needed to achieve your business goals….

“Architecture isn’t about tearing down the house and starting with a clean sheet of paper. That’s unworkable. What it means is taking the structure that already exists and building a foundation under it,” says Foote. Companies need to rethink their strategies and consider these as the cardinal IT roles:

• IT Architects define IT solutions to business challenges via architectures, systems, applications and process components and the integration of a broad variety of applications and diverse hardware and software components.
• Project Management professionals initiate, plan, execute, control and close projects/ programs, using formal profession processes, methods, tools and techniques to manage scope, financials, risks, changes, issues, resources, contracts and customer satisfaction.
• IT Analysts identify new business/technology environment opportunities, align processes to technology using world-class knowledge assets and experts, and team with clients to provide lasting value.
• IT Specialists support solution construction working in a team with IT architects. They validate the solution in the context of the solution sale and implement it with a systems integration approach in a technology or business specialty

What do you include in your people architecture?

That’s a WRAP!  Have a nice weekend.