How to cut the IT budget

I like articles where political quagmires are summed up in easy-to-swallow axioms, like the laws of thermodynamics.  In this article, Cringe finds a good one: “IT power is based on head count, so IT management will never take action (like out-sourcing or cloud-sourcing) that cuts staff.” 

The solution, he opines, is clear.  When you must cut staff – cut the managers first.  The rest of the savings will come naturally as tech-savvy underlings are freed to embrace the economies of Enterprise 2.0.  

That would work great except for that other old axiom that goes: “never give your employees the opportunity to fire you”.   Feel free to comment about 360 degree performance evaluation programs.

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . Fire Your Boss | PBS

Because power in IT organizations tends to be based on head count, preserving jobs takes a priority. And when jobs have to be eliminated, they tend to come off the bottom of the organization when they should more logically come off the top — or at least from near the top. A tech who directly helps users is more important than a manager who can’t manage. This is especially true if that manager is making 2-3 times as much as the tech.