IT profession makes headway

The creation of a ‘technology in business’ stream as part of Whitehall’s fast-track application process for talented graduates should be supported unequivocally.

For some years Computing has championed the role of the chief information officer (CIO) and the notion of technology as a central element of business strategy, rather than a basement offshoot with priorities of its own.

The public sector has taken longer than commercial business to respond to changing realities. Notwithstanding ‘e’ targets of all kinds and politicians’ commitments both to streamlined procedures and telegenic displays of modernity, the staffing and structural issues that make up the people management side of increasing technological reliance have gone largely unnoticed and unaddressed.

And at least part of the reason for the government’s poor record – both in implementing technology and in making best use of its potential – is the lack of understanding or skilled experience in the upper echelons of the civil service.

The professionalism agenda developed as part of the eGovernment Unit’s (eGU’s) Transformational Government strategy published in November 2005 was the first step in following the private sector’s lead. Since then most major departments have either recruited a CIO, or elevated the one they have to board level.

By making technology in business part of the fast stream, the eGU is complementing the immediate effect of recruiting a high-level CIO with the development of the professional structures necessary to change Whitehall culture over the longer term.

Though the scheme will start on a very small scale, if successful it will ultimately do more to build competence into the fabric of civil service skills than top-level leadership, however effective, can ever hope to do.

The IT workforce has traditionally had a poor reputation and a truncated career path. The eGU scheme is sending out a clear message about the centrality of technology to government. The knock-on effect, within Whitehall itself and also on overall profile of IT professionals, can only be positive.