Best practice for grooming critical mid-level roles

The motivation for the study is to examine the effects of several trends on the IT workforce. The purpose of the study is to understand several key mid-level roles in IT client organizations, which are gaining importance for organizations as they employ alternative sourcing arrangements. Mid-level positions, such as project manager, senior system analyst, relationship manager and system architect, continue to be in demand in the organizations we study. Organizations use these roles to design solutions and coordinate their delivery. They also use these roles as a way to allow up-and-coming talent to demonstrate their leadership and problem-solving capabilities. Employees view these roles as an important opportunity to extend their knowledge and skills and to use their experience as a stepping stone toward a management career. This study is intent on better understanding the characteristics, traits and motivations of those who successfully fill these positions and identifying best practices for organizations to identify, develop and retain personnel to fill these roles. Justification for our topic and approach, along with preliminary results, are presented for this work-in-progress. Copyright 2007 ACM.