NCC Members have free access to this Guideline on the Principia website.

The radical changes that have overtaken IS in the past decade have been accompanied by similar changes in the roles and responsibilities of the men and women who work in the field. NCC's own annual salary survey has demonstrated over the years how functions that were once thought central to IS have diminished in importance to the point of disappearance, while completely new functions have appeared and flourished.

Technologically, the biggest changes have been the rise of packaged software, the spread of networking, and the development of the Internet. Consequently, the profile of skills and experience required within most IT departments has also changed. Today's new entrants are more likely to benefit from expertise in Visual Basic or Java than in RPG3 or even Cobol.