The coming wave of IT staff retirements

Over at Computer Economics we've just published a special report on the soon-to-be-felt impact of baby-boomer retirements on IT organizations.

From the abstract:

As the baby-boomer generation ages, a growing number of senior IT professionals are nearing retirement, and many organizations have not fully prepared for the loss of so many leaders and experienced technical staff members.

Furthermore, as younger IT staff replace older workers, the demographics within the typical IT shop are changing, leading to a number of "generational issues" (differences between generations in their skills, culture, and experience) that will need to be addressed.

This special report, based on our survey of over 150 organizations, documents the extent of these problems by size of organization, highlights the various strategies that IT groups are taking to deal with them, and provides practical recommendations for IT executives to prepare for the coming generational transition of the IT workforce.

This issue might not have the doomsday sounds of Y2K, but it might have a greater long-term impact. For many organizations, loss of knowledgeable staff might be the tipping point for finally replacing many of those legacy systems.

An executive summary of the report is here.