People Skills: Why Soft Competencies Are Important

¶ … People Skills: Why Soft Competencies Are Important to Software Development Makasiranondh, Maj, and Veal (2011) recently investigated the apparent disconnect between student opinions on soft skills and the general requirements in the software industry. As the results have shown, the students in their sample had a generally low opinion on the importance of soft skills for their future careers -- they just don't see the point of learning people-oriented competencies when there are other, more 'practical' technical skills to be underscored.

Of course, there is a disparity between these very same opinions and what's needed in the IT industry; you can't survive in the field without getting along with others (Levasseur, 2010). So the general challenge, as of this point, is in establishing how to argue the benefits of people skills given the asymmetrical importance given to the more technical skills. This is the subject of this paper.

Why Do Projects Fail? McManus and Wood-Harper (as cited in Levasseur, 2010) had pointed out that about 65% of IT projects fail because of the lack of people skills. Without learning how to get along, with the best of intentions, even those who are experienced software development team leaders will have a hard time completing a particular project (Levasseur, 2010).

It is then not an unreasonable stance to point out that people skills do influence the success of a project, a fact that is translated not only in organizational efficiency but also in monetary cost -- not being able to get along with others affects the bottom-line. The reason for such an influential position seems to be rooted on the fact that although technical skills can furnish the requirements of a software project, the modular nature of project management (i.e.

efficiency built on specialization) requires the capacity to juggle the different needs and particularities of members -- these are non-technical issues that require social finesse to handle. Giuri et al. (2010) echoes the same idea in its reiteration of team production theory, which also explains that social collaboration is essential to project success. In addition, collaboration, in tandem with capital and specialized skills, not only maximizes output but adds to it, ensuring a high total productivity for the whole team (Giuri et al., 2010).

In this case, it is then a simple matter to say that soft skills are prime influencers to team success. Since this particular structure would not be fundamentally changed anytime soon, it is then advisable for students like us to be able to develop these skills even before we join the workforce. This is a line of reasoning that most would be able to understand.

Leadership in the 21st Century Of course, it needs to be reiterated that soft skills should also be balanced by the technical know-how of a particular profession. Social collaboration can only work if it synergizes with the essential competencies of everyone (Giuri et al., 2010). Hilton (2008) established the same thing in underscoring the fact that the 21st century worker should have an increased tolerance for greater complexity both in social competencies and specialized skill -- one shouldn't work without the other.

This proposition is certainly of great logical importance for the speed of innovation in the past decade has certainly been at an all-time high (Makasiranondh et al., 2011). Given this, knowledge and expertise, tempered with social awareness, is the ideal path to take. With this, the important lesson for students is that we should be essentially aware of career-bound skills that we still need to develop.

Although formal education could fill in these gaps, there are still modalities of experience that are open to us that may serve to prepare us for the future. For example, organizational membership and extra-curricular activities would enable us to capitalize on opportunities to hone our people skills. Volunteer work could primarily do the same thing, as well as open source alternatives that migh even provide professional contacts after graduation.

Final Thoughts It is of no small realization that there is a constellation of skills that students still need to develop before joining the IT workforce. People skills are part of this needs for the existence of such in a team could make or break a project. Since it is work experience.