Ideas to Retire is a TechTank series of blog posts that identify outdated practices in public sector IT management and suggest new ideas for improved outcomes.

Dr. John Leslie King is W.W. Bishop Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan and contributed a blog hammering the idea of “do more with less” calling it a “well-intentioned but ultimately ridiculous suggestion.”

King writes: “Doing more with less flies in the face of what everyone already knows: we do less with less. This is not our preference, of course. Most of us would like to do less, especially if we could have more. People are smart: they do not volunteer to do more if they will get less. Doing more with less turns incentive upside down. Eliminating truly wasteful practices and genuine productivity gains sometimes allows us to do more with less, but these cases are rare. The systemic problems with HealthCare.gov were not solved by spending less, but by spending more. Deep wisdom lies in matching inputs with outputs.”

IT managers should respond to suggestions of doing more with less by assessing what really needs to be done…what can reasonably be discarded or added that enables the IT staff to go about their responsibilities without exceeding their limits?

Considering these ideas as they relate to IT Security, a way to optimize input with outputs may be by considering a co-managed solution focused on outcome. Rather than merely acquiring technology and then watching it gather dust as you struggle to build process and train (non-existent) staff to utilize it properly, start with the end in mind – the desired outcome. If this is a well managed SIEM solution, (and associated technology) then perhaps a co-managed SIEM approach may provide the way to match output with input.