KEEPING IT ON TRACK
Catherine Doran, winner of Computing's IT Leader of the Year award, tells Angelica Mari of her determination to drive on with technology-led transformation at Network Rail despite uncertainty over funding.
These are challenging days for Catherine Doran. She is in charge of Network Rail's IT assets and is facing growing pressure to keep down costs, but she remains unperturbed. The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) confirmed earlier this year that Network Rail will be given an overall budget next year of £28.5bn, £2.6bn less than it asked for. The company still has to respond to the ruling, while the ORR contends that the shortfall will actually amount to £1.2bn once some projects are dropped or delayed. The announcement from the regulator followed months of wrangling with the rail infrastructure firm, which is understood to have said it could generate savings of about 13 per cent, considered "optimistic" by the ORR....
Read the full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/2230730.
Showing posts with label Women in IT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Women in IT. Show all posts
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Need to keep IT on track? Put a woman in charge ;)
Only kidding - put whoever the most competent person is for the job in charge. Personally I can't stand this business of meeting quotas and positive discrimination so I don't want any of you getting the wrong idea about some of my recent posts. My headline is actually in reference to that used by Computing this week in reference to Catherine Doran who won their 'IT Leader of the Year' award. Congratulations Catherine!
Sunday, 16 November 2008
The path to CIO - as a black woman - to be or not to be?
The recent achievements of Lewis Hamilton and Barack Obama got me thinking about role models again. Those of you who have been with me for awhile will know that I'm very interested in the challenges that women face working in IT and there is a lot of emphasis on role models.
It's a current ambition of mine to become a CIO and there just aren't that many females, let alone black females (the 'double whammy' as someone recently said to me). So imagine my excitement awhile back on hearing the success of Gail Roper - a black female CIO working in US government. Do you know of any others?
Anyway, back to my path. My original plan to get there was to go through the ITSM route (which I really enjoy) yet recent events mean that I've had to put that plan aside and remap my path as I walk the project management route (which I also enjoy). After some deliberation about the move I've decided that, actually, it is completely the right thing to have done. Why? Whether you read ITIL, CIO, or pretty much any other technology (with career focus) website out there; there are constant references to 'the business'. Alignment. Integration. That's where we are at. So what better move for me than to step out of IT and into the business in order to get a better understanding of 'the other side' with which we are to integrate?
More on this subject another time. For those that would say race and gender don't matter in such things - as much as I wish they didn't - the fact is they do. I hope that as I move through both my professional and personal life that people will look past gender, past race - and see me. A little ITIL imp :)
It's a current ambition of mine to become a CIO and there just aren't that many females, let alone black females (the 'double whammy' as someone recently said to me). So imagine my excitement awhile back on hearing the success of Gail Roper - a black female CIO working in US government. Do you know of any others?
Anyway, back to my path. My original plan to get there was to go through the ITSM route (which I really enjoy) yet recent events mean that I've had to put that plan aside and remap my path as I walk the project management route (which I also enjoy). After some deliberation about the move I've decided that, actually, it is completely the right thing to have done. Why? Whether you read ITIL, CIO, or pretty much any other technology (with career focus) website out there; there are constant references to 'the business'. Alignment. Integration. That's where we are at. So what better move for me than to step out of IT and into the business in order to get a better understanding of 'the other side' with which we are to integrate?
More on this subject another time. For those that would say race and gender don't matter in such things - as much as I wish they didn't - the fact is they do. I hope that as I move through both my professional and personal life that people will look past gender, past race - and see me. A little ITIL imp :)
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Girl Geek Dinners
Anyone who reads my blog knows that I am pretty passionate about women working in IT and that it is a little demotivating to hear stories about people leaving the profession and the number of girls who are not opting to study computing in it's various guises.
Thanks to a fellow woman referencing it on the BCS Women's discussion group I came across this article (website | PDF) in the Guardian about 'Girl Geek Dinners'.
Created by Sarah Blow, from what I can see it's another networking group that seeks to raise the profile of women working in IT. They have groups all over the world - perhaps it's time that this geeky imp checked them out ;)
Thanks to a fellow woman referencing it on the BCS Women's discussion group I came across this article (website | PDF) in the Guardian about 'Girl Geek Dinners'.
Created by Sarah Blow, from what I can see it's another networking group that seeks to raise the profile of women working in IT. They have groups all over the world - perhaps it's time that this geeky imp checked them out ;)
Friday, 18 April 2008
Women getting back into IT
As a woman working in a predominantly male industry it can be quite frustrating at times. Particularly when I read articles regarding the continuing imbalance between the genders as regards pay-scales for the same job (although I suspect that local government may do a better job of this than the private sector - I wonder if anyone has sent in Freedom of Information requests to find out...).
At the moment, I'm constantly getting jibes regarding my age and how I shouldn't wait much longer before having children. There is a valid argument behind this. However, like many women I'm pretty career-focused and can't help wondering if I were to take time off to bring up a child whether I may find myself in the same boat as other women trying to return to work after a career break, e.g. less likely to get a promotion or even not getting a job utilising your skills at all! The research (2005) reflects a sad truth. If anyone is aware of any more recent studies that buck the trend I would be very interested in them!
This question published in the Guardian last November is but one example of the reality for women in IT.
For those women who are already on the other side of their break, there is some advice available from the likes of Equalitec (see the ITEC Career Opportunities for Women Returners, July 2005) and BCS Women.
At the moment, I'm constantly getting jibes regarding my age and how I shouldn't wait much longer before having children. There is a valid argument behind this. However, like many women I'm pretty career-focused and can't help wondering if I were to take time off to bring up a child whether I may find myself in the same boat as other women trying to return to work after a career break, e.g. less likely to get a promotion or even not getting a job utilising your skills at all! The research (2005) reflects a sad truth. If anyone is aware of any more recent studies that buck the trend I would be very interested in them!
This question published in the Guardian last November is but one example of the reality for women in IT.
For those women who are already on the other side of their break, there is some advice available from the likes of Equalitec (see the ITEC Career Opportunities for Women Returners, July 2005) and BCS Women.
Saturday, 2 June 2007
Women and the long hours culture
Unfortunately I wasn't unable to attend the "Raising your profile for a successful career in IT" event hosted this week in London by WIT (Women In Technology) in association with Microsoft. If any of you did I'd be interested to here what you thought of it.
What interests me is one of the statistics from the survey carried out earlier this year which indicates that 75% of respondents felt their employers had a 'long hours' work culture. Apparently this is one of the factors discouraging women from working in technology and leaving it never to return. Personally I don't mind putting in the hours when it is needed. However I fully expected to be compensated for my time. Is the issue really the long hours, or is it about being adequately compensated to make up for time not spent with family? As a 30-something woman myself, I wonder if in a few years I'll be one of those statistics who want to work in technology but find it women-unfriendly.
Source articles:
Women In Technology
Computing
What interests me is one of the statistics from the survey carried out earlier this year which indicates that 75% of respondents felt their employers had a 'long hours' work culture. Apparently this is one of the factors discouraging women from working in technology and leaving it never to return. Personally I don't mind putting in the hours when it is needed. However I fully expected to be compensated for my time. Is the issue really the long hours, or is it about being adequately compensated to make up for time not spent with family? As a 30-something woman myself, I wonder if in a few years I'll be one of those statistics who want to work in technology but find it women-unfriendly.
Source articles:
Women In Technology
Computing
Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Girls and Women in ICT update
It's almost a year since I posted about girls and women working in ICT. Not much seems to have changed in that time from my relatively uninvolved perspective, but things certainly haven't stood still.
It isn't only the UK that has a shortage of girls going into IT careers (we're comparably well off compared to some countries); the European Union are also doing their bit to try and encourage a change. I watched the shadowing video with interest but felt that it really didn't succeed in the way that I think the one over on e-skills UK does.
Speaking of e-skills, the CC4G (Computer Club for Girls) website has had a much needed makeover and there is now some improved content in the way of case studies and links to other sites as well as information for employers who may want to get involved.
Finally, I wanted to mention that from 6th - 8th June in Tunis there is an 'International Colloquium on Empowering Women in Engineering and Technology'. The programme looks quite interesting although I do wonder just how you become one of the 'selected women' :)
It isn't only the UK that has a shortage of girls going into IT careers (we're comparably well off compared to some countries); the European Union are also doing their bit to try and encourage a change. I watched the shadowing video with interest but felt that it really didn't succeed in the way that I think the one over on e-skills UK does.
Speaking of e-skills, the CC4G (Computer Club for Girls) website has had a much needed makeover and there is now some improved content in the way of case studies and links to other sites as well as information for employers who may want to get involved.
Finally, I wanted to mention that from 6th - 8th June in Tunis there is an 'International Colloquium on Empowering Women in Engineering and Technology'. The programme looks quite interesting although I do wonder just how you become one of the 'selected women' :)
Monday, 26 June 2006
If I had this a month ago!
As I was going through some papers that I got from the ProfIT conference I came across a leaflet promoting the Intellect Women in IT Forum.
If only I had looked at it before I gave the presentation at the 'Women into ICT' day! It summarises very nicely some of the key issues affecting the recruitment and retention of women in working IT today and also mentions the deliverables from their research programme, in particular:
Women in the IT industry: Phase 2 Research How to Retain Women in the IT Industry (July 2005)
Women in the IT industry: Phase 1 Research Towards a Business Case for Diversity (January 2005)
That wasn't what got me all excited though. The Intellect link led me to the hitherto unplummed depths of the E-skills UK website (and I used to think I'd had a really good browse of it too!). In a tiny corner of the careers section there is a link to a video entitled 'You can do IT too!' which, lo and behold, seeks to destroy those stereotypical perceptions of IT workers in an effort to encourage young women into the field!
If only I had looked at it before I gave the presentation at the 'Women into ICT' day! It summarises very nicely some of the key issues affecting the recruitment and retention of women in working IT today and also mentions the deliverables from their research programme, in particular:
Women in the IT industry: Phase 2 Research How to Retain Women in the IT Industry (July 2005)
Women in the IT industry: Phase 1 Research Towards a Business Case for Diversity (January 2005)
That wasn't what got me all excited though. The Intellect link led me to the hitherto unplummed depths of the E-skills UK website (and I used to think I'd had a really good browse of it too!). In a tiny corner of the careers section there is a link to a video entitled 'You can do IT too!' which, lo and behold, seeks to destroy those stereotypical perceptions of IT workers in an effort to encourage young women into the field!
Sunday, 11 June 2006
Women and ICT - where are they all?
Hi again, sorry for the lack of entries - it has been a particularly busy time for me. I have attended a number of events that I want to talk about on this blog so I'll try and catch up over the coming month!
First of all I want to tell you about a new personal development challenge that I gave myself this past week. An opportunity arose through the BCS Women Group to present to a group of year 10 girls (aged 14) from local schools at a 'Women into ICT' day at a local college. I've done a fair bit of presenting but this was the first time to a young audience. With 45 minutes to fill, I didn't want to just talk about my role as a support officer as I figured that would put them to sleep. I needed another angle so started digging around a little.
I was surprised to find that in 2001 just 22% of the IT workforce was made up of women which apparently was a 10% reduction over the previous 7 years! The more I read the more I wanted to convince these young women that they are needed in the future UK IT industry. Women were leaving IT in droves...why was that? Could it be the way it is taught in schools? Or is it still all about perception?
My research turned up the belief (which I happen to agree with) that IT in schools needs to be split between the basic IT skills that everyone needs (much in the same way then require English and Maths) and the IT / computing required for a career in IT. There is a new IT diploma being developed for 2008 so that when kids leave school they actually have skills relevant to the workplace.
There's even a Computer Club for Girls (CC4G) scheme which schools can be involved with to show girls other aspects of technology and its applications.
So, people are already trying to do something about IT education. That left me wondering what I could do to combat the perception. Another little stat for you from a survey in 2005.
The clip made them laugh, and they managed to stay awake for what I considered the boring part of the presentation, then sprung back into life for the quiz.
I stayed to listen to another presentation, curious as to the approach they took, which was quite different to mine but in some senses perhaps more useful as it gave them a lot to think about in terms of different job roles available in IT where as I focused primarily on support and destroying stereotypes.
I also assisted with the practical HTML workshop which was fun. They seemed to really enjoy seeing the results of their coding and playing around with colours etc.
All in all I found the experience very worth while and would certainly do it again if the opportunity arose. It was a challenge for me to find ways to maintain the interest of a room of 25 young girls as well as deliver it. I can only hope that if they only took one thing away from the presentation its that 'A career in IT is for women too'!
First of all I want to tell you about a new personal development challenge that I gave myself this past week. An opportunity arose through the BCS Women Group to present to a group of year 10 girls (aged 14) from local schools at a 'Women into ICT' day at a local college. I've done a fair bit of presenting but this was the first time to a young audience. With 45 minutes to fill, I didn't want to just talk about my role as a support officer as I figured that would put them to sleep. I needed another angle so started digging around a little.
I was surprised to find that in 2001 just 22% of the IT workforce was made up of women which apparently was a 10% reduction over the previous 7 years! The more I read the more I wanted to convince these young women that they are needed in the future UK IT industry. Women were leaving IT in droves...why was that? Could it be the way it is taught in schools? Or is it still all about perception?
My research turned up the belief (which I happen to agree with) that IT in schools needs to be split between the basic IT skills that everyone needs (much in the same way then require English and Maths) and the IT / computing required for a career in IT. There is a new IT diploma being developed for 2008 so that when kids leave school they actually have skills relevant to the workplace.
There's even a Computer Club for Girls (CC4G) scheme which schools can be involved with to show girls other aspects of technology and its applications.
So, people are already trying to do something about IT education. That left me wondering what I could do to combat the perception. Another little stat for you from a survey in 2005.
- 35% of respondents aged 13-17 associate a career in IT as some form of administrative or secretarial office work.
- 27% of respondents would consider a career in ICT or Computing.
- Introduce myself and outline the agenda for them (90 seconds)
- Split them into groups for a group exercise: "Who am I?" This was designed to get them thinking about difference aspects of an IT support worker through personality, environment, skills, and education (20 minutes). I also hoped it would reinforce the stereotype to go neatly into:
- Showing a TV clips of Nick Burns The Computer Guy with Jennifer Aniston to sum up the stereotype and demonstrate how IT support shouldn't be done (5 minutes).
- 'A day in the life...' A quick talk about the different aspects of my work as well as those I work with to show that we aren't the stereotype (well, not all of us anyway!).
- A quick explanation of how I got from school to where I am now.
- An explanation of why I was there on a 'women into ICT' day including some stats to reinforce a few points.
- Finishing with a quick fire quiz with sweets for correct answers.
The clip made them laugh, and they managed to stay awake for what I considered the boring part of the presentation, then sprung back into life for the quiz.
I stayed to listen to another presentation, curious as to the approach they took, which was quite different to mine but in some senses perhaps more useful as it gave them a lot to think about in terms of different job roles available in IT where as I focused primarily on support and destroying stereotypes.
I also assisted with the practical HTML workshop which was fun. They seemed to really enjoy seeing the results of their coding and playing around with colours etc.
All in all I found the experience very worth while and would certainly do it again if the opportunity arose. It was a challenge for me to find ways to maintain the interest of a room of 25 young girls as well as deliver it. I can only hope that if they only took one thing away from the presentation its that 'A career in IT is for women too'!
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