5. Developers
Developers aren't going anywhere: They are crucial to digital transformation goals. Their skill sets and roles are evolving quickly in the age of AI and automation, however. Companies are already working on machine learning models that, given a highly specific domain language description, can generate parts of code or even whole applications, Wawro notes. "This technology is still in its early stages, but as more and more development tools are leveraging machine learning to aid a developer’s work, we might see more chunks of applications being delivered by machines."
"As much as it might seem to be a far fetched, future scenario, we are seeing a lot of companies starting to adopt low-code platforms (i.e. Salesforce), where having a highly technical developer is no longer extremely crucial. This puts more emphasis on domain experts and business analysts, which might be one of the crucial steps to make development work more automated,” says Wawro.
6. Scrum master
In agile, confusion around titles like scrum master and project manager create overlap and silos, says Alan Zucker, founding principal of Project Management Essentials.
“In agile organizations, there has been too much debate regarding the roles of the manager, project manager, and scrum master. People come to the conversation with their own baggage and biased perspectives. We should step back and look at the three roles, and recognize that there is a significant overlap without a need for competition,” says Zucker.
If you find overlap in your organization, consider rolling the responsibilities under one “team lead,” says Zucker. “The lead may have traditional management duties but use lean-agile techniques to coach their teams to do better and mature their practices. The lead can also play the critical role of working externally with senior management and stakeholders. We can reduce the siloing and finger-pointing that has developed in some of our organizations by consolidating these roles,” he says.
[ Is your scrum master empowered? Scrum master: 5 signs you need to rethink the role ]
7. Database administrators
As digital transformation accelerates in organizations, the position of database administrator will evolve, says Wawro.
“DBAs were an absolutely critical role in every enterprise in the 2000s and 2010s, but the role has seen a huge decline in the last few years,” he says. As part of digital transformation work, many companies are moving toward a more cloud native model, he notes. By putting more data in cloud services, companies can simplify scaling and put some of the leg work of managing and administration of the data stores on the vendor’s side, he notes. "The strategy is for customers to focus solely on what type of data they work with and their consistency and availability, more than fine tuning of the internals.”
8. Anyone unwilling to change
No matter the role, no one in IT should get too attached to the job description they were hired to do. Change should be expected, says Hernandez.
“Coming back to my earlier point, there are many roles in IT, and it’d be unreasonable to mark any given role superfluous based on title alone,” he says. “But I do think it brings up a deeper question: How capable is my team, and do I have the right people onboard who are able to execute on the ongoing needs of the organization?”
Look for people who are adaptable, he says: “IT is ever-evolving and the right individuals won’t pigeon hole themselves to the expected capability of a given title. Instead they will strive to iterate and continue to improve their value to the business. If you’ve got the right people, who are willing to do what is necessary for the team and organization at large to be successful, then that’s more than any founder or CEO can ask for.”
[ How can automation free up more staff time for innovation? Get the free Ebook: Managing IT with Automation. ]
