Job Profiles within IT

Below is an overview of some of the Job profiles which are generally found in an IT environment. You can click on the job titles for further information.

 

1st Line Support / Helpdesk - Click here for 1st Line Support or Helpdesk roles

A help desk is an information and assistance resource that troubleshoots problems with computers or similar products. Organisations often provide help desk support to their customers via telephone, website and/or e-mail. There are also in-house help desks geared toward providing the same kind of help for employees only. 

 

Business Analyst - Click here for Business Analyst roles

The term Business Analyst (BA) is used to describe a person who practices the discipline of business analysis. A Business Analyst or "BA" is responsible for analysing the business needs of clients to help identify business problems and propose solutions. Within the systems development life cycle domain, the business analyst typically performs a liaison function between the business side of an enterprise and the providers of services to the enterprise. Common alternative titles are Business Analyst, Systems Analyst, and Functional Analyst, although some organisations may differentiate between these titles and corresponding responsibilities.

 

Business Development Manager - Click here for IT Sales roles

Business development comprises a number of techniques and responsibilities designed to create new customers and penetrate existing clients. Such techniques include assessment of marketing opportunities and target markets, intelligence gathering on customers and competitors, generating leads for possible sales, advice, creation and enforcement of sales policies and processes, follow-up sales activity, formal proposal or presentation management and writing, pitch and presentation rehearsals, and business model design. Business development involves evaluating a business and then realising its full potential, using such tools as marketing, sales, information management (sometimes called knowledge management), and customer service. For a sound company able to withstand competitors, business development never stops, but is an ongoing process.

 

Change Manager - Click here for Change Manager roles

Change Management is an IT Service Management discipline. The objective of Change Management in this context is to ensure that standardised methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes to controlled IT infrastructure, in order to minimise the number and impact of any related incidents upon service. Changes in the IT infrastructure may arise reactively in response to problems or externally imposed requirements, e.g. legislative changes, or proactively from seeking improved efficiency and effectiveness or to enable or reflect business initiatives. Change Management can ensure standardised methods, processes and procedures are used for all changes, facilitating efficient and prompt handling of all changes, and maintain the proper balance between the need for change and the potential detrimental impact of changes.

 

Data Analyst / Data Analysis - Click here for Data Analyst roles

Data analysis is a process of gathering, modelling, and transforming data with the goal of highlighting useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, encompassing diverse techniques under a variety of names, in different business, science, and social science domains.

 

DBA - Database Administrator - Click here for DBA / Database Administrator roles

A Database Administrator (DBA) is a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database. In general, these include:

• Recoverability - creating and testing backups
• Integrity - verifying or helping to verify data integrity
• Security - defining and/or implementing access controls to the data
• Availability - ensuring maximum uptime
• Performance - ensuring maximum performance
• Development and testing support - helping programmers and engineers to efficiently utilise the database.

The role of a Database Administrator has changed according to the technology of database management systems (DBMSs) as well as the needs of the owners of the databases. For example, although logical and physical database design are traditionally the duties of a Database Analyst or Database Designer, a DBA may be tasked to perform those duties.

 

Network Administrator - Click here for Networking roles

The Network Administrator is usually the highest level of technical / network staff in an organisation and will rarely be involved with direct user support. The Network Administrator will concentrate on the overall health of the network, server deployment, security, ensuring network connectivity throughout a company's LAN / WAN infrastructure, and all other technical considerations at the network level of an organisation's technical hierarchy. Network Administrators are considered 3rd Line Support personnel who only work on break/fix issues that could not be resolved at the 1st Line Support (Helpdesk) or 2nd Line Support (Desktop / Network Technician) levels.

 

Programmer - Click here for Programming roles

A Programmer is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to programming may also be known as a Programmer Analyst. A Programmer's primary computer language (.Net, Java, Delphi, C++, etc.) is often prefixed to the above titles, and those who work in a web environment often prefix their titles with web.

 

Project Manager - Click here for Project Management roles

A Project Manager is the person accountable for accomplishing the stated project objectives. Key project management responsibilities include creating clear and attainable project objectives, building the project requirements, and managing the triple constraint for projects (cost, time and scope).

 

Software Project Manager - Click here for Project Management roles

Software Project Managers are Project Managers with a firm background in software development and related fields. They are often responsible for overseeing the software development life cycle.

Unlike traditional Project Management, where a heavyweight, predictive methodology such as the waterfall model is often employed, software project management must deal with a much greater amount of uncertainty, so it tends toward lightweight, adaptive models such as SCRUM, XP and DSDM. Software Project Managers are responsible not only for implementing a successful development model, but also for seeing that each phase of development is successful.

 

Software Tester / Quality Assurance - Click here for Software Testing roles

A primary purpose for testing is to detect software failures so that defects may be uncovered and corrected. Testing cannot establish that a product functions properly under all conditions but can only establish that it does not function properly under specific conditions. The scope of software testing often includes examination of code as well as execution of that code in various environments and conditions. In the current culture of software development, a testing organisation may be separate from the development team. There are a variety of roles on offer for members of the Software Testing team. Information derived from software testing may be used to correct the process by which software is developed.

 

Systems Analyst - Click here for Systems Analyst roles

A Systems Analyst is responsible for researching, planning, coordinating and recommending software and system choices to meet an organisation's business requirements. The Systems Analyst plays a vital role in the systems development process. A successful Systems Analyst will benefit from being analytical and technical with managerial and interpersonal skills. Analytical skills enable the Systems Analyst to understand the organisation and its functions in order to identify opportunities and to analyse and solve problems.

 

Technical Architect - Click here for Technical Architect roles

Technical architecture is one of several architecture domains that form the pillars of an enterprise architecture or solution architecture. It describes the structure and behaviour of the technology infrastructure of an enterprise, solution or system. It covers the client and server nodes of the hardware configuration, the infrastructure applications that run on them, the infrastructure services they offer to applications, the protocols and networks that connect applications and nodes. It addresses issues such as performance and resilience, storage and backup.

Alternatively, technical architecture is a synonym of system architecture.

 

Web Designer - Click here for Web Design positions

Web page design is a process of conceptualisation, planning, modelling, and execution of electronic media content delivery via Internet in the form of technologies (such as mark-up languages) suitable for interpretation and display by a web browser or other web-based graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The intent of web design is to create a web site that presents content to the end user in the form of web pages. Such elements as text, forms, and bit-mapped images (GIFs, JPEGs, PNGs) can be placed on the page using HTML, XHTML, or XML tags.

 

Web Developer - Click here for Web Development positions 

A Web Developer is a Software Developer or Software Engineer who is specifically engaged in the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over the HTTP protocol from a web server to a web browser. Many Web Developers are also skilled in related areas such as web design, information architecture, usability engineering, web content management systems, web server administration, database administration, software engineering, project management, network security, and search engine optimisation.

 

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