What is the industry crying out for in an age of information proliferation ­ database acumen, business intelligence brilliance, security aptitude or knowledge management nous? Just what is the must-have information management skill for the modern IT professional’s armoury?

Rob Chapman, director of Firebrand Training, which was formerly The Training Camp, says information management skills are of only limited merit without overarching business understanding, leadership ability and project management expertise.

“We started off with Prince 2 and ITIL and those sorts of project management courses, and as we started putting them on, we found that our doors were practically blown off their hinges by the rush of demand, so we are now at the stage where we run a Prince 2 training course every Monday with 16 people in it,” he says, reflecting on the shifting demand for IT instruction at his company.

“We haven’t found the bottom of the barrel yet. It will probably become like a Douglas Adams story, where you end up with more project managers than people to manage.”

Businesses want their IT leaders to have project management skills. Fine, but surely there is room at the top for information management specialists, offering a cutting edge all of their own, even if they are not entirely Churchillian in stature.

Alistair Russell, development director in charge of IT manager and chief information officer (CIO) development training at networking organisation CIO Connect, is not so sure.

“I’m not saying you don’t need those skills,” he says. “They do get you to the table. You start off with data architecture or analysis, for instance, but then on top of that strong professional foundation the thing that makes a difference is your leadership skills.

“I would say it’s those leadership skills that make the difference in your career, and while there are plenty of examples of where senior IT leaders are making a difference with their IT qualities, I would not recommend solely developing your skills as an IT professional. I would recommend the development of the softer skills of business and change leadership.”

If this prescription for putting together the perfect CV seems a tad severe, especially for technology professionals keen not to be prised from their IT bunkers, Ollie Ross, head of research at user group The Corporate IT Forum (Tif), offers some persuasive context.

“Historically, the information would let you know that you had a certain amount of hits on your web site, or you have sold x pieces of y and that it had all happened in a certain amount of time, but now we need to put bits of data together to tell if there is a trend for this product in this season, or for a particular type of market,” she says.

Ross says organisations are now taking data and turning it into bits of information for business use. IT skills previously concentrated on producing data, or building the technology to produce the data. Now, she says, firms need real business analytical skills.

“People have to interpret what that data means, combining aspects of the data they have with an understanding of business issues and how the business works ­ interpreting that data in such a way that it is something the business can use,” says Ross. “There is a big gap there because that’s not something that comes out of a pure IT course, and this is where so many businesses are finding they are short on skills at the moment ­ people who can interpret that data to get the information they need.”

Ross says developing wider business capabilities is proving a major challenge for ambitious IT leaders. She has noticed a marked trend of IT leaders marching onto MBA courses to receive a crash course in the soft stuff that is actually, potentially, rather hard ­ as not everyone has innate leadership capabilities.