Treasury Department: Stop the IT Madness

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Outside Contractors and Political Appointees

Nice article and a topic that we have been pondering in Washington State for some time. An answer may involve a strategy from an old play book involving politics and power.

US President Jackson became powerful by rewarding those loyal to him with plum jobs. Only during his time there were not enough federal jobs for those he wanted to reward. The nation really was run lean. But there was a new US Bank, which when you think about it is roughly equivalent to a US federal IT organization given all the Internet banking now taking place.

Jackson needed government jobs where he could place patrons and he needed jobs that any patron regardless of qualifications could do. When the federal jobs of that description ran out and he could create no more new ones he found places to put his friends at the US bank. The end result was of course a larger federal government and a larger US bank by count of employees.

Eventually the system collapsed; we have no US bank; all that work is outsourced now. The same may be happening with IT at the federal level.

Of course we see this in the corporate world as well. CEOs need plum jobs for cronies and so they put unqualified people into IT departments. Eventually to get competency, they outsource by hiring consultants and eventually that all collapses.

IT is more important than even Finance/Banking because it involves business process which is a core function of management. We need to get more to see that outsourcing IT is outsourcing of management. It is core to the endeavor and should be avoided.

Posted by: mighetto   Posted on: 08/03/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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