Re: [OT] Development vs. Maintenance?

From: Binyamin Dissen (postingid_at_dissensoftware.com)
Date: 11/06/04 

Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2004 21:04:23 +0200

On 5 Nov 2004 13:10:31 -0500 docdwarf@panix.com wrote:

:>From the 30 Oct 2004 issue of The Economist, the lead article to 'A
:>Survery of Information Technology', 'Make it simple':

:>--begin quoted text:

:>Tony Picardi, a boffin at IDC, yet another big research firm, comes up
:>with perhaps the most frightening number. When he polled a sample of
:>firms 15 years ago, they were spending 75% of their IT budget on new
:>hardware and software and 25% on fixing the systems that they already had;
:>now that ratio has been reversed - 70 - 80% of IT spending goes on fixing
:>things rather than buying new systems.

:>--end quoted text

:>'... 70 - 80% of IT spending goes on fixing things...' seems, to me, to
:>indicate a 'maturing' of the field. I was taught, lo, those many years
:>ago, that 'your average COBOL shop' spends 70 - 80% of budget on
:>maintenance programming; for this number to show up again causes me to
:>muse.

One wonders where "enhancements of existing systems" fits in the equation. 

--
Binyamin Dissen <bdissen@dissensoftware.com>
http://www.dissensoftware.com
Director, Dissen Software, Bar & Grill - Israel
Should you use the mailblocks package and expect a response from me,
you should preauthorize the dissensoftware.com domain.
I very rarely bother responding to challenge/response systems,
especially those from irresponsible companies.