GIS has been traditionally a field where main focus was on data and data related services. GIS is more difficult than IT due to it multi-disciplinary nature and it has become part of packaged IT-centric solutions. Broadly it encompasses the Domain expertise along with knowledge of software, database, surveying and many more to count. Minds of the GIS personals are not programmed to understand the seriousness of terms like “Total Solution Provider”. Academias as well as industry throughout this sub-continent have failed in taking this responsibility. The result is the acute talent crunch in the field of GIS. At present we need to develop a breed of real GIS professionals who can understand the client requirements, visualize the problems and their solutions in advance and thus deliver in time and ensure client satisfaction.
We have very few problem solvers at present. Solving problems is a high-visibility process; preventing problems is low-visibility. This is illustrated by an old parable:
In ancient China there was a family of healers, one of whom was known throughout the land and employed as a physician to a great lord. The physician was asked which of his family was the most skillful healer.
He replied, "I tend to the sick and dying with drastic and dramatic treatments, and on occasion someone is cured and my name gets out among the lords."
"My elder brother cures sickness when it just begins to take root, and his skills are known among the local peasants and neighbors."
"My eldest brother is able to sense the spirit of sickness and eradicate it before it takes form. His name is unknown outside our home."
This is a problem in any business, but it's a particularly difficult problem in the IT & ITES industry. Quality related problems are often not as readily apparent as they might be in the case of an industry with some physical products.
Additionally, many organizations are not able to determine who is skilled at fixing problems, and then reward such people. However, determining who has a talent for preventing problems in the first place, and figuring out how to incentivize such behavior, is a significant challenge esp in the smaller co.s where thrust is on labour intensive activities and most of the persons in the management have grown up with time (experience the name we give to our mistakes) within the organization without any proper background and knowledge. Such persons can never appreciate the views of a person who thinks ahead of them and thus hamper the talent nurturing and fail in creating the pool of good people necessary to produce quality work in any setup.
No comments:
Post a Comment