What Is IT?

When a new discipline emerges, it takes some time for consensus to develop on what that discipline really is and what its practitioners actually do. Consensus can be especially difficult to reach in the computing arena, where fundamental changes in technology occur with increasing frequency and where the impact of those changes is profound and unpredictable. “Information Technology” is particularly difficult to nail down, because it has gained widespread use in diverse contexts. In particular, two definitions of IT have emerged, one referring to the computing world as a whole (often referred to as “big IT”) and the other referring to the specific discipline addressed by RIT’s IT program (often referred to as “little IT”). We prefer the term “general IT” to refer to computing in general, and “specific IT” to refer to the newly emerged discipline addressed by our academic programs.

So what do we mean by specific IT at RIT? We’ll take two approaches to describing our vision of Information Technology: first by illustrating what we think IT is in this section, and then by contrasting IT with other computing fields in the next section.

The characterization given above of an information technologist as the “user’s advocate” in the computing world seems to resonate with many people. Information technologists approach technology from the user’s point of view rather than from the computer’s point of view. We tend to think of the computer as a powerful tool for doing a great many things rather than as an end in itself, and our students tend to care more about how people use computers than about how computers work “under the hood.” One of our students in the early 1990’s phrased it well: “We bend technology to fit people.”

Five Pillars of IT

This role of user’s advocate is diverse and multifaceted. In order to “make things work” for people in today’s (and tomorrow’s) sophisticated computing environments, Information Technologists need core competencies in five essential areas, which have emerged in the IT model curriculum from SIGITE as “pillars” of IT:

• Programming and application development
• Web and multimedia content development, which we refer to as “interactive media”
• Database management systems and enterprise application development
• Networking and system administration, which includes the design, deployment and security of computing infrastructure
• User-centered design and deployment, including needs assessment, human-computer interaction, technology transfer, and ongoing support.

The fifth competency area, which we euphemistically refer to as “the human stuff,” is in some sense the defining competency for IT professionals. To be successful users’ advocates, IT professionals must see the world through their users’ eyes. They must learn enough about the tasks users perform and the skills they possess to be able to select, integrate and deploy technology that enhances users’ lives. This requires skills in information gathering, user-centered design, and effective deployment in the users’ environment or culture. These skills, in turn, are built on a foundation of strong communication and people skills.

The core competencies that every IT professional must possess also provide a foundation on which to build greater depth in selected areas. Many IT students choose to focus on one or two technical aspects of IT to prepare for careers as specialists in a variety of market niches like game development, security or Web-database integration, to name a very few of the many possibilities. Other students choose a broader path to prepare for “general practitioner” or “Jack of all trades” jobs, which are prevalent in virtually every enterprise in society. In short, RIT’s IT program offers the opportunity to specialize but does not require that a student specialize.