I work for the industry and there is little to justify the increased numbers. The numbers increase seem to look more like betting than otherwise - ‘We need to be No.1 and as Accenture is No.1, let us increase the numbers to exceed them even’, for example, goes the description of the strategy. The fact that, as already pointed out in the article, that there is a gap between availability of the person to work and his actual allocation indicates that bookings if far less than that which could keep all of them employed. Yes, the industry could do with even 50% less or so.

One of the comments made a perceptive comment that the day pipeline is empty, they would reduce the workforce by 50% as they did in 2002. This is easier said than done - the bloodletting in 2002 - I was involved then too - was the worst managed in the history of Corporate India. IT HR just does not have the skills beyond event management and then there is this problem of looking nice to the customers even while bloodletting continues. If you are already in IT, my advice would be that you develop new skills. If you not in IT, this is not the time to get in.

GK

I am pretty sure that there must be some serious work on in major univ., or might even be there, that uses quantitative methods to calculate an efficiency factor for each person.(say X-Factor)
That figure must be like a Social Security Number for that person. It should be given to him on joining the industry, and should be regularly updated as he grows.
This way one can judge that how much this person is capable to deliver in one man-day.So, in a way, the PM knows that what kind of persons are part of their team and what is their X-Factor.He can then use this to calculate the time required to complete his project, or a given module.

Another point I wish to suggest it that in this industry HR practices also need to evolve.They have to move ahead of just recruiting people and retaining. They have to look forward to managing a person in such a manner that he is at least able to justify his salary.
At times, there are cases when people sit the whole year on bench.
They have not earned company a penny. And in some others, some people have been made to work so much that they earn 10 times their salary for the company.

What does this leads to? Dissatisfaction. The person on bench may feel cheated and may lose motivation to stay back in the company, n the slogger may feel that he is underpaid.
All this due to poor management.
Just imagine that if the services of the person on bench could have been utilised to even some extent, the workload of slogger would have come down, n each would have gone back home pretty happy.This is the situation that this industry must strive towards.

I know its easier said than done.But one have to make a start to bring in more sanity to this industry, otherwise its going to disintegrate soon, and may just live up this boom period only.

asset

So in a way I can agree that you could have done with 30% lesser people at given point in time. But then pipeline is the sanctum sanctorum of the IT industry and they live on that. The day this pipeline looks empty more than half of these would shed 50% of their workforce like they did in 2001.

Project margins and allocation make people try to do more with less. The greed in project managers makes them a little of a contractor who would like to keep as less people as possible and make as much done. And in the end its a sad story. We go many distances to preach that there should be a healthy work life balance but then its interesting to see these preachers only kneel and ask time off your personal life from you.
Who knows we’ll be in same shoes someday. But I wish (of course trying is not enough) that I can strike that balance for myself.

Secondly, I totally disagree about the work-people ratio. May b the case is different with the big tier-1 companies, but if it comes to others, its just overstaffing.
They make a fool of clients and thus are able to carry this baggage of huge employees who don’t earn the company a penny.

I wud again say industry can still function well with 30-40% of current strength, subject to it being managed well.

The training which is called the 9th semester is quite good. I mean it is nothing which u will get to learn in production work. I’m sure it does not beat the education in the IITs but its sure a must for other college grads. For them it surely gives more practical knowledge than what they would have mugged in their engg. And as one of your point says that the qualification bar is decreasing its all the more important to have such trainings before entering the corporate world. Also apart from the technical it tells you a lot about corporate etiquettes. There are somethings in Infosys which I appreciate and one of them is this finishing school which should become a norm in other companies also. I have heard from first hand sources that people in other companies do even mail in all caps to the teams. This is one of the examples and there exist many of those. Though I agree this training does not eliminate weaker students as it used to do long back. It’s lax and now its difficult to get kicked out as they give many fall backs, re-tests and interviews.

Another point I differ is the work point. There is enough work in this industry to hire many people. The major issue which is going on is that they understaff and get more work. I agree to the point that most of the things can be done in 9-5 but my experience says that almost 70% of the project run with less staff than required and atleast some people in the project cannot make it in 9 to 5. Working hours are also disturbed because of the time gap with the client locations. Though this cannot be helped but flexi timings are a good solution to a healthy work life balance.