Eight to Late

The well known technology advisors who construct  magic quadrants  tell us that the traditional IT department will disappear in a radical five year transition.  The death of “old IT” , we’re told,  will be accompanied by the birth of a next-generation IT department,  staffed by (what else but) a new breed of technology professional.  These new-look departments will be up to a third smaller in size than the ones they replace, the superfluity of staff being achieved by automation.

But there’s a silver lining: those fortunate to remain employed in these personnel-depleted, automation-enhanced technology departments will have novel (as in new, not fictional) titles like Director of Processes or Innovations Manager. Seriously, I didn’t make these up –  they’re taken straight from the first paragraph of  the article . 

So, here’s a strategy for survival in the new world: rename/redefine your current job using buzzword compliant (but otherwise obscure) terminology.   As an example close to home (and taking a cue from the article),  an IT Development Manager might become a  Director of Process Improvement, the latter being a nice CMMesque title which has the added advantage of not saying much about the work the person does.  Who can argue with it, though? Surely, every company needs some direction in their process improvement  efforts.  Application development, on the other hand, is so passe that its time has almost passed. I give it five years at most.  How can I be so sure? Well, there’s this article I read recently…