Rise of the Corporate Skeleton Crew?

Big Stick asks: "Recently I have noticed a trend in several prominent companies in my area of laying off entire technology departments. Just this week in my own company--a division of a well known, mid-sized corporation--the software engineering department was let go en masse, rather than just a reduction in head count. The rationale for the move being that it would be easier to evaluate the potential cost of developing a new product if groups of contractors were hired, instead of the numbers getting lost in the 'free' work of the full time developers. The overall impression this leaves is that many major companies are re-prioritizing the need to innovate new technologies for the presentation of their business, relying on skeleton crews of DBAs/SAs to maintain rather than enhance. The main question this raises is, are we heading towards an era where full time software development is more likely to be housed in technology specific firms? Something along the lines of the construction industry where projects are bid on, constructed, and the involvement of the creators with the finished product is minimal?" If others of you are noticing this trend in the industry, please share your thoughts. Do you think this is a move forward or backwards?

Comments

Economic Recession

[jo42]

What you are seeing is the result of the economic meltdown that started with the dot-com bust. Despite what you see on TV and read in the papers, the economic meltdown continues - the media is masking the severity of this downturn. If you want to see for yourself how bad things really are, take a trip through the US and note the closures of many businesses, the 'downsizing', and actually talk to people. Things are much worse than they are made out to be. Conspiracy? Possibly. However, if the media told how bad things really are, economic conditions would be even worse due to reaction to these news.

How does this fit into the topic of this discussion? Companies are going into holding patterns, reducing costs and hoping that things will turn around soon. I predict a second wave of large reductions over the next few months. I point to an article that IBM is looking to let go up to 20,000 more staff by the end of the year. By letting whole departments go, costs are being reduced significantly. It also allows the company, if it survives, the ability to restructure, either by contracting work out or rebuilding.

Bottom line, keep the hatches battened down for further stormy weather. Bookmark this. Late in the year we will see if I am right or not.