IT Perspectives Conference is a documentation of the top-level conference sponsored by the publishers of Computer Weekly, which aims to examine the issues that concern computer professionals and to provide at least some of the answers while indicating the directions which IT may be expected to take moving on to the 1990s. Leading figures from the IT industry and from major computer users show how they are tackling the transition from the limited task based approach of traditional computing to the more wide-ranging strategic issues implicit in the concept of information as a resource to be managed, used competitively, and even sold. In looking towards a future characterized by transaction-oriented systems, online databases, and distributed processing, the significance of tools such as fourth generation languages and computer-assisted software engineering is described and the vital role of communications at all levels from local area networks to the development of international standards is examined. This book will be useful to anyone wishing to discern the main trends in IT development and computer systems implementation as they set out to develop the systems of the 1990s.