The incredible shrinking IT staff?

Under pressure from ever-more capable outsourcers, information technology departments are poised for serious staff reductions over the next several years, according to a new report from research firm Gartner.

By 2010, the number of IT staff in the profession will shrink by 15 percent, Gartner predicted Tuesday. Apart from the rise of outsourcers--who often provide their services from lower-cost countries like India--IT departments also face the diffusion of tech skills throughout an organization, Gartner said.

"As IT becomes a more integral part of every business function, there will be increasing numbers of people outside the (information systems organization) whose work involves IT," Gartner said in the report, "and as IT skills become a more important component of business professionalism, in-house IS staff will be displaced."

The report adds to somewhat confusing signals about the future of the IT profession. The U.S. Department of Labor forecasts that computer software engineering and network systems and data communications analysis will be among the top 10 fastest-growing occupations between 2002 and 2012. And last fall, a Gartner analyst predicted a shortage of technology professionals in the United States in the near future, thanks to factors such as declining student interest in the tech field.

But a study in 2004 from research organization Rand did not find evidence that shortages of scientific, technical, engineering and mathematics personnel in the U.S. work force are on the horizon. And a separate Gartner analyst last year predicted that over the next 20 years, changes in computing technology will erase the need for much of the work that employs IT staff today.

In addition, the growing trend of shipping IT work offshore seems likely to harm U.S. techies in the form of fewer U.S. jobs created, at least in the short run. A report last year sponsored by the Information Technology Association of America trade group on offshore outsourcing of software and IT services indicated that sacrifices by American IT workers would result in an improved U.S. economy overall.

In its latest report, Gartner forecasts increased involvement by IT staffers in business matters. By 2010, the firm said, 60 percent of the people affiliated with the information systems group will assume "business-facing roles around information, process and relationships." As a result, Gartner predicted, "the size of the IS organization will decrease, and...by 2010, IT departments in midsize and large companies will be at least one-third smaller than they were in 2000."

"As we see departments within businesses taking on the traditional functions of IT, so IS professionals and leaders will have to choose between careers as technologists, technical managers and business professionals," David Flint, research vice president at Gartner, said in a statement.

[open-mind]

The Incredible Shrinking Value of Gartner?

That would be a better title for this story.

Gartner is really good at stating the obvous, but really bad at
predicting the future.

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They can't even decide what is true

Contradictory results from their multiple studies shows that Gartner doesn't have a clue.

The Incredible shrinking IT Staff

Its time we stopped "bashing" Gartner and faced up to some "real" issues.

Old guys like me who have been in the industry 35 years are more frustrated at the mindless commitment to offshore and Java.
I am sick and tired of having to explain simple systems design and intersystem reconciliation principles to our so called well trained outsource Java community.
I am also sick of hearing "exceptions happen".
In my programming days, you thought about exceptions and gracefully managed them through a sensible design to resolution.
"Throwing exceptions" to a log file is nothing short of disgraceful.
And when a 51 year old guy (a CIO) like me has to review Java code and show the so called Genius Technical Architect where code is wrong, I'm told, "Well its good you had a chance to review". What!!!
As for offshore, check the DR policy, check the Security, check the national grid and most of all check the comms.
If any of these do not stack up get the hell out of there.....

Wake up and smell the daisies guys this industry is going to pot and offshoring et al are taking us there.

Well spoken

I might not have the title or experience but I have to do that all the time to those network engineers when I am just a desktop/PC specialist.. Sadly, people mistaken me for an outsourced service guy when I am an Asian-American.. I work so hard to see why I am in a dying industry.. Reason why I have to spend more of my own money to go MBA now (which is not lucrative as it used to be in some reports)... But I definitely understand that because I am the scrubber for the managers and see it in my own head.. But they have the title...