What actually does IT consist of? What roles are there? What are the responsibilities and requirements?

When you mention IT, it might not always be clear enough what you refer to. We have multiple languages we specialize in. We have numerous management approaches. We have millions of projects and use cases. We have hundreds of thousands of applications. We use different tools, systems, software. But still, we're kind of united around IT as a field and refer to people in IT (those writing code, of course) as programmers or developers. 

Did you know that back in time amount of men and women in IT was more or less equal (unfortunately no longer the case)? So do you wonder about who we were, who we are and where we're going? 

IT is changing

Undisputable is the fact that IT is changing. Now more rapidly than ever. A programmer who has not been coding for ten years will have a hard time finding himself in modern frameworks. Yes, with the correct mindset, it will be easier for him to learn new principles and standards, but he would have to catch up a lot. 

Why? The explanation is simple. 

This is because our population (dev) is growing, and we are building new stuff all the time. Reusable, reliable stuff. Like cars. You don't care about blueprints – just fasten your seat belt and drive. You take something, add configuration, deploy, and no longer think about what is inside your app. 

How much time would it take for you to create and support app in C vs modern frameworks? Implementing authentication from scratch? Import a library. Use frameworks. You work with backends, do SEO, data mining, data science, optimize databases, not only one element... but the growing number of technologies... 

More and more stuff is coming all the time, IT is a great business, and it's expanding. Every day I hear about how easy it is to do something that was complicated as hell back when I was running my own dev company. Multitenancy? Process automation? Digitalization? Translations? Rollbacks? Damn, it is easy now (with the right tools, don't be Bob).

So if dev is easy, why isn't everyone doing it?

I believe we will be. Look at transformations that have happened. I know people without technical education background being best of the best in their dev-fields now. Historically, we had developers and operations separated. Now it's devops. I myself use tools that allow business to get involved easily with development. Look! Here it is. Slow progression to bizdevops which I think in long run will utilize low-code-approach (no/less code, just logic). 

If you don't know low-code-approach yet you can read more here: low-code-approach. Or see how I had created an app without knowing syntax here translate-your-e-commerce-platform-to-6-different-languages-in-a-day. I believe it will shape future's picture. It is readable by business and much easier to handle by service management.

But going back to the modern developer and main questions.

1. Where are we going?2. What will change?

I think that additional tools for business will emerge. The role of software architects will be more important than ever as they decide which tools to recommend and which should be forgotten. If you're in IT, I think you should not fixate on only one technology stack anymore. Unless you want to stay behind.

That being said. I think in one area IT is already ahead. Integrations. Somebody has already predicted what I'm saying, and created awesome tools that allow to connect distributed solutions and environments easily. Tools like Frends, for example. (If you want to hear more about our use-cases with Frends, let me know! I'm happy to present you some real-life examples how we deliver bugless environments).

Do you know any other such tools for integrations, or what similar tools have you been using? Share them with me.

What else can I say. Evolve. Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. Watching this change is exciting and seeing current speed of digitalization makes my mind wonder.

P.S. and it would be exciting to see also more women joining IT ranks again. :)

Written by: Pawel Kowalski, Site Manager, Poland, Frends.