End of the road for the IT department as we know it?

IT departments could be in for a major shake-up if some of analyst Gartner's more controversial predictions come to pass, with more jobs automated and outsourced and an end to 'big bang' project implementations.

Reviewing a series of the analysts group's 'maverick' or blue sky predictions, Gartner group vice president Tom Austen said IT departments could see big changes over the next 10 years.

In the future most IT infrastructure work is likely to be automated, Gartner predicts, with the rest outsourced. As much as half of end user services such as helpdesk and training could be automated, with much of the rest outsourced.

And around half of application development and maintenance could be automated and the rest outsourced or absorbed into the business, leaving only a small amount of this work to be done in the IT department.

But new categories of job such as relationship management will be created - and while much of this (around 70 per cent, Gartner predicts) will be done by the business, some of this will be handled by the IT department.

IT strategy in terms of architecture and advanced technology research will still stay in the IT department, with only small amounts outsourced or absorbed into the lines of business.

Austen told delegates at the company's Midsize Entreprise Summit in Dublin: "Existing jobs are going to go away and new jobs are going to emerge and the future belongs to people who can change. It's no longer just about implementing the best ERP system."

He added: "IT strategy is something that sticks around and becomes very important. There are opportunities here for business process consultants and people who understand information flows. Relationship management is going to be very important."

This will be coupled with a change in the way IT delivers projects, he said: "Most of the investment involving big bang projects is over."

Delivery of projects will move away from big bang to a continuous flow with quicker deliverables and shorter timescales, he predicted.

And the role of IT may also change too - as most routine processes become automated, IT will focus more on helping to assist with non-routine work that actually provides the real business benefits, he said.

IT will focus on the things that people do that you can't automate, "and figure out where you can augment these things that make the strategy [of the business] come alive", he said.