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Thursday, February 12, 2009

Material Analysis

The IT professionals are highly mis-understood, not in terms of our high intelligence, but in terms of our worth. We are paid way more than we deserve, and we have also led to the inflated charges of everything.
Wondering what a skewed tangential look I am taking to life?
Let us make a time n material estimate, shall we? A typical IT professional needs nothing more than a desk, a system and software to work on. Say the project is supposed to be completed in 18 months. Now Assuming:

Cost of software used : Rs.50,000*
Electricity consumed per person : Rs. 200 per day per person**
The total amount spent in 18 months
would be : 50000 + 200X30X18***
= Rs. 158000
So average monthly salary of a software
professional should be : Rs. 8777.78

* Highest cost I could think of, but cost of software is immaterial, as it will be used for another project even after the 18 month duration is over
** A liberal estimate taking the compuer, shared AC and shared lights into consideration
*** Assuming we work 30 days in a month


You’ll agree with me now. We are overpaid right?
We aren't, because in the above calculations, the ‘time’ aspect is not accounted for. Neither is the amount of effort or mind-work, or the family functions we gave a miss to, to complete our work.

Now, let us all observe a moment of silence for the countless number of times we have cited the petrol prices vs mileage ratio to the auto-wallahs in retaliation to their exorbitant rates.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

price tag depends on what the buyer is willing or forced to shell out. IT manages to extract more and create a win win situation for buyer and seller.

For autos - the initial price demand itself is so high that one can never reach a win win situation. the justifications turn hilarious when, for eg, petrol price increases by 2 rupees per litre and auto fare simultaneously goes up from 100 to 150 bucks!!
Given what is happening or happened at the investment banking circles, IT pasanga ellaam jujubi. Hmmm ... that gives me another topic to research and blog on ;-)

Ashwin said...

What I do can be done by a three year old, provided I teach him/her where to place what in the excel sheet and whom to add in the To-list of the mail. Yet, I'd like to think I am the only one suitable for this job and I'm worth the pay because I've crossed the legal limit to receive a pay and I've been taught to engine'err' for four good years. I'm happy!

Archana said...

Jiju,
Et tu? What is the difference between the two service providers (IT & transport)? Both are high-margin profit services. I agree that the initial quoted prices by autos are high, but bargaining works. I do not like the mileage talks at all. It will be very embarrassing personally if someone asks whether I deserve what I earn to the last penny.

Ashwin,
And then there are people like you who are so good at work but are way too modest about it! :)

Kunal Chandra said...

It is a bit dangerous to comment on such stuff when real experts have already provided their opinions.... But I think one difference might be the whole value add stuff. So cost is one thing but price is determined by the perceived value of a service by the customer.
And in the case of transportation since all cost is sunk cost the price will be set by the cheapest option... buses may be in this case. But in IT sector it will be determined by the value that the customer derives out of the delivered work.

Archana said...

"Value of a service and our perceptions to it" - If that is the key point here, then what makes our IT work high value, and comfortable transportation low value (rather margin)? IT provides a software solution ( relatively high skill, less effort), autos & buses provide us with transport (relatively low skill, high effort)