IT leaders should pay closer consideration to defining the roles of their key staff, according to well-nigh 30 years of research into the causes behind IT staff moves.

In each attempt to understand turnover patterns in the IT function, researchers at the University of New South Wales UNSW in Australia analysed 72 studies from transversely the globe carried out between 1980 and 2008, focused on IT turnover.

By analysing universal factors across those studies, Amir Hossein Ghapanchi and Aybuke Aurum of UNSW set up 70 distinguishable reasons why IT professionals might leave a role.

The supreme reasons staff cited for departing an IT team were uncertainties from one place to another the role they were expected to fulfil – termed role dubiousness – and role conflict, where incompatible demands are placed on the employee.

As the researchers condition out, understanding and overcoming these factors could help retain valued members of the IT team.

The moil has just been published in the Journal of Systems and Software.