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The user— the missing link in IT research and Development This article is about the direction and management of research and development in information technology. Information technology (IT) is defined as any aspect of science and technology which concerns the storage, manipulation, communication and use of information. IT concerns the development and use of semiconductor circuits, microprocessor computers, software, display and printing devices and so on. As such IT permeates every aspect of our lives: at home in our domestic appliances and home control systems, at leisure in our cars and electronic games, at work in our office systems, management systems and design systems. A user of IT is anyone who uses any aspect of IT for any purpose. A user may himself be an IT professional, a member of the lay public, or a business person with a difficult problem to solve. History of IT It is possible to describe the history of the development of information technology in five phases: Science and Technology, Stand Alone Applications, Integrated Applications, Exploitation and Competitive Weapon. Science and Technology concerns the basic discoveries and developments at the heart of IT such as computing, semiconductors, software, computer architectures and so on. Without Science and Technology there would be no IT and without further developments in Science and Technology there will be no substantial development in the application of IT. The pace of development shows no sign of slackening. Hardware, such as semiconductors, microprocessors and storage 更多：https://www.bmcx.com/ , continues to become smaller, more powerful and cheaper at an astonishing rate. Our ability to write software which has languished for many years is now showing signs of progress. The communications story is only just beginning. Stand Alone Applications were the first examples in the use of IT. They consisted mainly of the automation of repetitive tasks and replaced clerical and mathematical effort with processing on computers. Easily identifiable tasks were selected, such as payroll, catalogues and mathematical equations, and the main objective was to save money in executing those tasks. Integrated Applications consisted mainly of linking together the stand alone applications with the objective of reducing repetition and duplication in data entry. The linking usually concerned systems controlled by the same person or function in an organisation such as payroll and personnel, stock control and accounting. Again the objective was to save money. Exploitation of IT started with the realisation that IT can break down traditional organisations and barriers, and considerable savings in costs overall can be made by spending more on IT. Simple examples concerned the removal of 'brokers'— intermediaries required to match needs for information within an organisation with the information required—by direct online inquiries. Another example might be to reduce the cost of travel by providing better communications. The Competitive Weapon phase concerns linking the information systems of an organisation to customers, suppliers and collaborators outside the organisation. Here the speed, efficiency and cost of IT is used to improve the state of groups of organisations. In the process the dependency of one organisation on another is increased, and IT is thus used to improve the provision and cost effectiveness of goods and services provided. Examples include online booking systems for airlines, direct order entry, and the use of electronic data interchange (EDI) between retailers and their suppliers. The five phases in the development of information technology started in sequence, but now all are proceeding in parallel. There is no end in sight to the developments in any phase. Relationship between suppliers and users in IT The relationship between the suppliers of IT and the users of IT has developed through the five phases. In the Science and Technology phase, the supplier of the technology dominates. Physicists, engineers and IT specialists are the inventors of the technology, the power drivers of IT without which the subject will not develop. The user of the technology has played little part. In the phase of Stand AloneApplications, users are not sufficiently IT literate to understand the implications of IT. The functionality of most of the systems are never formally defined. This is the phase of technology push where the systems are implemented by technology specialists. It is the phase of the emergence of the IT professional in importance in science and industry. The phase of Integrated Applications increases the importance of the IT professional. Users are still on the sidelines and the linking of often undefined stand alone systems increases complexity and, in some cases, the rigidity of the result. Consequently there are many failures and disappointments.