Impacts of the Recession on IT

In my opinion....

Companies will get a lot more focused on the bottom line. That will mean staff reductions, process optimization and re-prioritization. I suspect us IT folks will be a bit safer than the rest as those are the particular areas IT is seen as shining in.

Some specialties that aren't seen as having a direct impact on revenue (security, auditing, QA/QC, performance testing come to mind) will be more likely to get outsourced or reduced or eliminated entirely (by giving those job responsibilities to other specialties). Many departments will return to shoot from the hip/cowboy IT where things are moved to production with minimal testing, documentation and oversight.

IT systems/support, internal development, interface engineering and other direct revenue roles will see greater work loads as they are expected to introduce revenue (via optimization or new development) and reduce expenditures.

Open source will see a spike as IT systems folks try to do more with less.

IT management (me ugh...) will see reductions especially where salaries are high and performance isn't seen as in line with business goals (which is common in organizations that don't "get" IT but also a reflection on the individual manager).

Help desks will see reductions as systems folk responsibilities will start to include top level end user support.

Large companies and organizations will be more likely to cut IT as a percentage across specialization's, small and medium will cut where they see the least impact on revenue.

Of course as i said, that's all just my opinion, we'll see how this really plays out. Being an executive i'm already on the IT "fringe" and the safest place is in the core (as long as you are competitive among you peers) at times like this. I do have faith that things will turn around though. We just need to make it to that light at the end of the tunnel and remember a lot of folks have it a lot harder than us IT people.