Don’t Replace Production With IT

The public broadcaster here in Denmark has just announced they’ll be firing 47 journalists to hire more IT people. What the hell are they thinking?!

I’m all for well-staffed IT departments, but IT is supposed to be something that helps the business. When you start firing the people who actually create the product that is the reason your business exists, you are on the wrong path.

If you want more people in IT, present a business case that explains how these people will pay for themselves. That involves calculating a business benefit in dollars and comparing it to the cost of the new people. They should pay for themselves in 12 months. Things are changing much too rapidly to depend on the multi-year repayment schedules used in the past.

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