Who's in the House?

Computerworld - If you're an IT manager, you need to know what skills your staffers possess. Without a proper skills assessment, how can you go about planning projects, changing strategy, outsourcing work, and training or downsizing staff?

"The IT field changes so rapidly that you need to know what skills you have compared to what you might need," says Betty Calhoun, director of special IT projects at DynCorp Systems and Solutions LLC, a federal contractor in Gaithersburg, Md.

Your human resources department may be able to help with the assessment, says Linda Pittenger, CEO of People3 Inc., a Bridgewater, N.J.-based IT human resources consulting unit of Gartner Inc. But the CIO should take the lead, because the IT workforce is ultimately his responsibility.

Before you start, know why you're doing it and focus your efforts to get the information you need. For example, if you're planning to build Web front ends on mainframe applications, be sure you use an assessment tool that covers all the bases around Web and mainframe skills.

Choose an Approach

There are three approaches you can take: You can hire a consulting firm to manage the skills assessment for you, purchase a software tool designed for the process or build one yourself. You can also track skills manually if your IT department is small enough, but if it's that small, you probably already know everyone's skills.

The CIO at a large Midwestern manufacturing company recently completed an assessment of 200 IT people using the services of a consulting firm. "We're looking at a very large .Net project and want to know who has what expertise so we can use that in our deployment schedule," says the CIO. She asked to remain anonymous because her employees are "kind of paranoid," fearing that the assessment may signal an impending layoff.

"This process is one that gets employees uncomfortable," says Gordon Lavalette, chief operating officer at People3, "so communicate before, during, after, early and often."

The CIO's workers had two weeks to complete online profiles of themselves, using a five-point grade on skills ranging from specific hardware and software expertise to project management experience. The information was automatically forwarded to their managers, who had a week to review it, clear up any discrepancies and sign off on it. If there were discrepancies, the managers and employees discussed them and worked them out. It was up to the managers to bring it all to closure.

Such skills ratings aren't tied to performance reviews or salary discussions, so there's really no need to embellish, experts say. If someone says he has a particular skill, he'll probably be called upon for an upcoming project.