Given the importance and nature of workforce development, the report is the first step in a longer term effort. In the next phase, the State CIO Council Human Resources Committee and its subgroups will use these results to help generate recommendations for next steps and action plans that enhance professional development and skill proficiency for the entire IT workforce. The study results suggest several areas for future investigation and leadership attention.

Skill proficiency affects many aspects of IT workforce development. These aspects include assessing the relationship between job advancement and technical proficiency as well as the roles education and skills assessments could play in recruitment. Other topics include the usefulness of a skills orientation to IT succession planning and better understanding of the relationships among training, employee satisfaction, and retention.

Training and other professional development programs would benefit from further evaluation. Future considerations for the design of learning opportunities include determining the effectiveness of formal education compared to skill-oriented training, as well as understanding the effectiveness of various methods and combinations of methods for achieving different competency goals. Another consideration is the possibility of identifying core competencies and ideal specialization profiles to help set priorities for future skill investments. In addition, consideration could be given to policies and methods for coordinated purchasing of professional development programs.

An important relationship exists between skills and the effectiveness of the IT enterprise. Future exploration in this area might include better understanding of how organizational culture and policies affect proficiency levels, consideration of current and needed skills in the process of selecting agency and statewide IT standards, and explicitly incorporating skills considerations into organizational strategies for moving to higher levels of IT effectiveness.