AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF SPECIFIC TECHNOLOGY SKILLS, GENERAL BUSINESS SKILLS, AND GENERAL TECHNOLOGY SKILLS

Abstract

A large volume of anecdotal research suggests that for today’s information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) professional, the importance of technology skills has been superseded by the importance of business, teamwork, and general application skills. This manuscript studies the importance of a variety of specific technology skills, as well as, general technology skills, and general business skills. The study is the start of a concerted attempt to empirically determine whether general technology skills are deemed more important than specific technology skills and also how general technology skills compare to general business skills. A detailed survey of professionals in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area was performed and specific hypotheses related to these skills were tested. Generally, it was found that for information technology professionals; general technology skills were found to be the most significant expertise desired by today’s information technology professional community. General technology skills were found to be significantly more important than specific technology skills. Further, general business skills were found not to be significantly more important than general technology skills. General technology skills were found to be more important than general business skills, but this difference was not statistically significant. The overall findings suggest that general skills, both in technology and business, are most important for entry-level IT/IS professionals. This study, though nascent, provides an interesting start in determining the key topics that should be included in today’s information technology curricula.