Wednesday, November 21, 2007

What is your IT specialty?

Even though the name of this blog is “IT Consultant,” I never call myself by that title. As TechRepublic member sheila said, everybody needs a specialization — and “IT” is way too broad a term for the consulting services I provide. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) site provides a document containing 32 pages of definitions for “Information Technology. ” I’m particularly fond of Ray Bjorklund’s (apparently unintentionally) recursive version at the bottom of page 7:

The statutory definition of information technology, as amplified by OMB A-11, includes services and support services related to the implementation and sustainment of IT.

IT has come to represent virtually anything connected with computers, and nearly everything is connected to computers these days. So I usually refer to myself as a “software development consultant,” because I typically consult for software companies, providing strategies for their future development. Shannon, the other regular author of this blog, focuses on project management instead. And I’m sure that our audience (that’s you) covers a much broader spectrum of specialties beneath the wide umbrella of “IT.” Or maybe some of you are left out in the rain.

I’m curious to know more about our readers, so I’d like for you to respond to the following informal poll. Please also add a comment to the discussion to tell us about your specific expertise — especially if it doesn’t fit into one of the categories below (which would seem unlikely, given that one of the categories is “something else”).

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