Technologies come and go, the purpose remains

Given the title of this column I would like to dig more deeply into option #3. Think of the power of the statement “Technologies come and go, the purpose remains” from a Business Analyst’s perspective. For you, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Yes, you must keep up with IT industry trends and trends in the business area you support, but the general purpose of the business systems you are designing and overseeing remains unchanged. Sure, there will be new features required (ex. adding social media connectivity to your CRM system), new interfaces to contend with (ex. getting your software to run on tablets and smartphones) and new industry specific regulatory requirements that must be retrofitted into your software and business processes. In all these cases, however, the purpose of the system remains the same. An accounting system still does accounting. A CRM system still keeps track of your company’s customers. A Help Desk Support system still helps coordinate the efforts of the technicians providing help desk support.

Because the business functions of these systems stay basically intact over time with ongoing expanding functionality, it favors Business Analysts, Project Managers, and IT Managers who have longstanding experience on these systems. The reason is that virtually everything you learn, from a functionality perspective, continues to be of value. In essence, your personal knowledge base continues to grow and evolve and very little prior knowledge becomes irrelevant. Yes, you must learn new versions of vendor software, new testing tools to assure new software is properly created and installed, but your core application knowledge simply expands, deepens and becomes more marketable as time goes on.

If you have any questions about your career in IT, please email me at
eric@ManagerMechanics.com or find me on Twitter at @EricPBloom.

Until next time, work hard, work smart, and continue to build your professional brand.

Read more of Eric Bloom's Your IT Career blog and follow the latest IT news at ITworld. Follow Eric on Twitter at @EricPBloom. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook.