When our society is undergoing a shift from a product driven to a service driven economy, this affects the competences that is needed in the work with IT. Research regarding soft skills and evaluation of IT-project success have been conducted throughout the years. There is, however a gap in knowledge around which these soft skills are and how they bring value to different stakeholders in the IT-industry. This research paper therefore aims to fill this gap and answer the questions: What is soft skills? and What are the possibilities and challenges associated with soft skills? To answer these questions data is collected through literature and interviews with people within the IT-field. The research paper focuses on an IT-consultancy and the majority of the interviews are therefore conducted with people within this consultancy. To make a broader understanding on the subject two additional interviews are conducted with representatives from two other IT-organisations. The results from the data collection show that soft skills include: analytical skills, empathic skills, leadership skills, social skills and problem solving skills. The results also show that soft skills lead to better use of systems for customers, more business opportunities for the IT- consultancies and the provider. It also becomes apparent that soft skills come with different types of challenges. These are issues such as how to argue the importance of soft skills for customers, as well as how to value the performed labour carried out by a consultant in possession of soft competence. Our conclusion shows that soft skills are needed in IT- projects and that the competence must get more space both in the literature and within the industry. To solve the issues, communication is concluded to be the key. This study contributes with a framework for how value is contributed to all the included parties in an IT-project.

Throughout time organizations have adapted and implemented different technological solutions to streamline their operation. With the adaption of new technology, employees will have to change their current routines. This readjustment is challenging for organizations because of people’s dislike towards changes. Studies in recent years within organizational change has highlighted soft skills value in this situation. A consulting company in Scandinavia (IT-consulting firm AB) has recently invested in soft skills to manage organizational change. The aim of this study is to investigate how significant soft skills are within IT-related organizational changes, for IT-consulting firm AB and their customers. Our investigation was a qualitative case study involving six semi-structured interviews with employees on IT-consulting firm AB. The results showed that soft skills are hard to define but involves intrapersonal skills like flexibility, adaptation and communication. Soft skills are essential both for IT-consulting firm AB and its customers. Its value creation within IT-related organizational change is interconnected to human activity like relationship building and understanding human needs.