Modern Workplace IT SkilLS
September 10th 2025
The baseball manager Earl Weaver once said, ‘It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.’
Education
Courses for business managers who want to direct IT projects and for IT people who need to know how their skills make businesses more successful. THIS SECTION WILL REMAIN LIKE THIS UNTIL THE EXECUTIVE AND BEGINNER'S COURSES ARE AVAILABLE.
This section of the site is under construction and some Download buttons may be dummy ones.
This section of the website contains some complete items (1,2 and 3) which show viewpoints of the IT ecosphere to illustrate the ethos and raison d'etre of it. IT is NOT a list of eclectic topics, as some curricula would have you believe; it is a whole with connections between elements within it.
01 Females in IT - A Survey !
Much has been written and many surveys carried out about the dearth of females in IT with few workable conclusions. In 2018 I developed a simple survey to address this mystery but with the addition of a 'free form' section where the females surveyed could let fly without being enclosed in yes/no pre-set reasons. The females surveyed were aged 14-18 and in school and the document below summarises the output of the survey.
Note that the 'IT' referred to in the survey was mainly 'computer science'.
02 Computing Project Flow
From business idea to a running IT system, what stages will a project go through? How do you manage progress? And how do you shift a working IT project into a dependable, running, performant, highly available, secure and manageable business system?
By reading what an IT 'old timer' has learned over many years and through many beatings by customers. !!!!
03 IT Critical Success Factors
Learn the critical success factors (CSFs) that spell spell success or failure for business IT. Critical Success Factors (CSFs) are the essential elements or activities that must be done well for an organization, project, or team to achieve its goals. Think of them as the non-negotiables—the things that, if neglected, can derail success entirely. !!!!
05 Introduction to Modern IT
The IT world has changed dramatically since the 1970s when the computer was owned by the CFO and computer work other than financial was a perversion. Today, almost all businesses depend on computing to some extent and, for many of them, their computing is mission-critical for the business.
This means that IT developments cannot be left entirely with IT; 'Put the new invoicing on the computer, you guys, and let me know when it is ready'. It is now: 'IT, we have a new invoicing system to computerise so we need to sit down together and plan its design, development and implementation'.
Most business people will be aware of the beating the senior management at TSB (UK bank) took in 2018 when an application transfer crashed, as pointed out in a very, very expensive assessment report by a third party (£ 22 million!).
Today, it takes two to dance a tango in business developments and this course recognises this, in part by removing the irrational fear of IT that many business people have.
04 IT for Executives
The IT world has changed dramatically since the 1970s when the computer was owned by the CFO and computer work other than financial was a perversion. Today, almost all business depend on computing to some extent and, for many of them, their computing is mission-critical for the business.
This means that IT developments cannot be left entirely with IT; 'Put the new invoicing on the computer, you guys, and let me know when it is ready'. It is now: 'IT, we have a new invoicing system to computerise so we need to sit down together and plan its design, development and implementation'.
Most business people will be aware of the beating the senior management at TSB took in 2018 when an application transfer went belly-up, as pointed out in a very, very expensive assessment third party report.
Today, it takes two to tango in business developments and this course recognises this, in part by removing the irrational fear of IT that many business people have. !!!
06 IT Compendium for Everyone
This document was years in the making, updated piece by piece to reflect the current status of IT topics, It is in alphabetical order. However, due to the volatility of the internet, some links may gve a '404 not found' message. In such cases, a search on the topic, plus a few words related to it will ofen give a document on that topic
07 IT Lunchtime IT Briefings
When I was at IBM, I initiated lunchtime briefings, which were talks about 20 minutes long and given (voluntarily) by various experts. The talks were on aspects of various topics, such as an overview of an IBM product, e.g. RACF, or simple queuing theory. In others words, anything that can be put into a nutshell effectively, at a level for a non-expert audience to understand.
These briefings were as much for my benefit as for my colleagues and were quite well attended after people had finished their lunch.
Whatever business your employer is in, these briefungs should be welcomed, especially any aimed at executives and senior management any of the 'great IT unwashed'.
08 IT Funnies
When I practiced IT over mor than three decades, I witnessed or was involved in many humorous 'adventures' and situations, presented in the link below. !
One involved a CIO (then called a DP manager) at a biscuit maker. When we met, he was friendly, knowledgeable and constructive. However, he had an ailment which caused him to pause, in a statue-like reverie, for about 10 seconds, after which he would come to life and say something random. He would say things lke 'Do you play golf?' or 'Got any children?' and then carry on as if nothing had happened.
Colleagues with me would stare in disbelief at these events, but a comforting wave of my hand placated them before the subject awoke. !!!