Manage information technology projects or system activities
Little of this can be handed to software today.
The reporting and paperwork around management automate well. Directing, developing and evaluating people does not, and people do not accept it when it is attempted on them.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Managing, training and developing people |
| Jobs that do it | 10 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Enterprise platforms |
| O*NET activity | Guiding, Directing, and Motivating Subordinates (4.A.4.b.4) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 10 occupations that perform it.
- Monitor project milestones and deliverables.
- Supervise computer programmers or other systems analysts or serve as project leaders for particular systems projects.
- Direct daily operations of departments, coordinating project activities with other departments.
- Assign, coordinate, and review work and activities of programming personnel.
- Develop or direct software system testing or validation procedures, programming, or documentation.
- Create and manage documentation, production schedules, prototyping goals, and communication plans in collaboration with production staff.
- Coordinate monitoring of networks or systems for security breaches or intrusions.
- Direct the analysis, development, and operation of complete computer systems.
- Schedule and facilitate meetings related to information technology projects.
- Plan and oversee incorporation of insurance program into bookkeeping system of company.
- Schedule or facilitate project meetings.
- Coordinate vulnerability assessments or analysis of information security systems.
- Direct or coordinate activities of project personnel.
- Oversee development of plans to safeguard computer files against accidental or unauthorized modification, destruction, or disclosure or to meet emergency data processing needs.
- Manage project execution to ensure adherence to budget, schedule, and scope.
- Oversee performance of risk assessment or execution of system tests to ensure the functioning of data processing activities or security measures.
- Develop and manage work breakdown structure (WBS) of information technology projects.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Buy nothing. The reporting and paperwork around management run on whatever you already use for documents, and the part that is actually managing people does not automate at any price.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Enterprise platforms
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
10 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Direct scientific or technical activities”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.