Just a thought...

As much as its weird to foresee the next ten years for this industry, its hard to imagine the past decade without IT industry. I remember one discussion within our group when my friend used to say that his ideal job would be to get a paycheck of Rs 10,000 per month, sit in an AC room and sign documents. He ticked the first two checks in the grandest manner possible. He earns almost 75% of his initial monthly target on a daily basis, surely has a spacious AC room to sit and he does a bit more than signing documents being the account manager of one of the biggest accounts in his company. Being a mechanical engineer by education, wonder where he would've been and how close to his dream estimates had it not been for IT.

The more I think about this industry, the more it baffles me. Appo en apdilaam thinkara..unna evanda thinka sonnanu kraas kostinlaam pannapdaathu.

Was having a discussion today over lunch with my friend from another account. I asked him the purpose of his project. This is how the rest of the conversation went:

"Purpose means? Its a development project, to reduce access time for end user"
"Appo performance fine tuning solria?"
"Illa..its an ..say..LIC mathiri oru policy irukkunna..atha pathina detailsa innum epdi end userku quicka kudukrathunu oru project"
"How old is your project and how were the users doing it before your project?"
"Its about 2 years running and previously they were using a different tool"
"What was wrong with that tool?"
"Nothing..it was on a version which was not supported by the product owner..so the client has to jump to a new one"
"Ippo irukara tool, how long will it sustain"
"Good point..even before go-Live, there was a policy decision at client side to move apps to cloud. So koodia seekram we may've to go for a new approach. New bidding. New project. New tech"
"Athunaala as an end user what is the use for him?"
"Hmm..first of all we make sure the activity remains automated and he doesn't have to revert to manual work around, secondly we ensure that they are served with latest state of the art tech which keeps them right up on the curve"
"So..just like how we keep changing our phones from basic sengal version Nokia to Bluetooth compatible version to smart phones, client also has to keep changing with tech trends and use panraano panaliyo epdi namma thalaila egapatta features poattu thaakrangalo..we also do the same for our clientsnu solla vara"
"Kitta thatta apdi thaan..naama cell phone companiesku clients thaana..iPhone 6la pesina thaan kekuma..Nokia 3105 battery life is thousand times higher than any smart phone..aana evan ipo phonea pesarathukaga use panraan..camera..internetnu ellamay confined spaces ulla vanthaprum..there is no singular purpose for anything..ellamay duality or plurality la thaan survive aaguthu"
"Except for the fact that it has saved us lot of time, which we are so happy to waste..urupidia vera edhuvum aana mathiri therilaiye"

In short I am stunned by the thought that, majority of our projects and proposals are nothing but same as selling smartphones!! In my short career, I couldn't think of a single project which the client couldn't have lived without!! Not just mine, but any of the related projects as well. Is IT as an industry just an easier alternative to an already well run system and by the way the cost of the alternative is increasing without any sound logic behind it, as well, is my opinion. How else can one explain, for a company having stagnant to similar level of growth over a period of decade, invest on one high end tech after other just to make sure their payroll system is up to date!! They might as well have spent a portion on the employees and won their hearts and loyalties!!

I am in no way against the industry that serves me bread and butter. I want my work to be like an art, which wouldn't just please the creator and the buyer but also anyone who witnesses its beauty. Unlike many of my counterparts, I prefer maintenance and support kind of projects compared to development. It gives me immense joy and satisfaction when a person who raised a critical ticket expresses his satisfaction and thanks for understanding their problem and solving it. Little joys of life :)