Category: Education

Five books every IT manager should read…right now »

My latest Baseline column  is up, and it talks about why you should read these five books now, if you haven’t already. And if you have read them, you should probably re-read them.  ..bruce..

Is IT work true engineering or just plumbing? »

And I mean no disrespect to plumbers for that comment. Many states require plumbers to be licensed, unlike software engineers. I was reading the comment thread to this Slashdot post on the declining percentage of women studying computer science. All the explanations you would expect are offered, with a fair amount of point and counterpoint. [...]

Hanging on to your IT staff »

I’ve written previously about the “Dead Sea effect“, in which your best IT engineers and managers leave over time, leaving behind an IT staff that is slowly becoming less competent and effective. Obviously, to counteract the Dead Sea effect, you want to hold onto your best IT people. My two latest Baseline columns talk about [...]

The decline in computer science students (part 2) »

I previously discussed the up-and-down cycle of college enrollment in computer science and related fields. More accurately put, there have been two large peaks in computer science enrollment: one in the mid- to late 1980s (which happens to be when I was teaching CS at Brigham Young University) and another right around the turn of [...]

The engineering shortage: Japan »

Today’s New York Times reports that Japan is “running out of engineers“: After years of fretting over coming shortages, the country is actually facing a dwindling number of young people entering engineering and technology-related fields. Universities call it “rikei banare,” or “flight from science.” The decline is growing so drastic that industry has begun advertising [...]

  • Categories

  • Archives

  • Recent Posts