Re: Damned lies and Statistics
"The quality of the IT provision has nose dived, but it's outsourced so it must be cheaper right?"
It's just the self-perpetuating fail cycle the IT profession has been in lately:
- Downward pressure on salaries by automation and outsourcing
- Further downward pressure from standardization + users willing to accept lower-end solutions for ease of use
- "Early retirement" of many experienced professionals, usually replaced by one of these service companies
- Fewer intelligent people entering the field as newbies
- Fewer people left to train the newbies and give them real world insight
- Further downward pressure on salaries due to poor perception of IT
- ...
Granted, this isn't true everywhere; I have a position at a reasonably enlightened company. But I do feel sorry for people who work at companies that treat IT as a commodity akin to janitorial service. And everyone's to blame for it. I don't know how many "professionals" I've worked with over the years that intentionally fail to document systems in an attempt for "job security" (which never works out long-term BTW...) I have also worked for more than a few people (and heard many stories) that just do not get the concept of paying someone to maintain computer systems. They're absolutely aghast that it might require professional help.
I don't know what's going to happen. Personally, I'd like to see the design side become a branch of engineering with a real professional organization behind it. What's probably going to end up happening is more of what's happening now -- armies of hacks propped up by a band of roving consultants who are never in the same place for a few months at a time.