Will, I would also add to your answer that it depends on how many changes to the applications are expected over time too.
If the application is customized and "set in stone" then consultants can be brought in for a few weeks (ok, maybe a few months the buisness does not really already know what they want done.) and then leave. As long as just "user work" is needed from that point forward then "developers" are not really needed at all. HOWEVER, I really doubt that will be the case for long. There will be changes needed at somepoint and having to call the consultants back, over and over again, will get expensive over time. So.... Plan ahead, hire one, two or three full time people before you get started. Then they will have the incumbered knowledge of how the system changed from day one and they will be very valuable to your org. (Size the group on expected work, and expand if needed in the first year or two.) In reality you might find that you need more "user trainers" than "developers" if your org's user turn over rate is high enough too. (Again, all questions/details that are more about your org/buisness than the load/capacity of the AR System.) -- Carey Matthew Black Remedy Skilled Professional (RSP) ARS = Action Request System(Remedy) Solution = People + Process + Tools Fast, Accurate, Cheap.... Pick two. Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence. On 7/18/06, Will Du Chene <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The only answer that I think of is: it depends. The number of administrators and/or support staff is going to depend upon what you intend to do with the product once you have it installed. Are you planning on integrating it with existing systems? What are your support hours going to be like? What sort of support coverage are you doing to need? It has been my experience that most AR Admins/Developers are the typical over-worked, not-happy-unless-they-are-moving-at-mach-2.5-with-the-hair-on-fire types. They dread being idle, require lots of pizza and... Are you buying any of this? No? Well, I tried... :-) Most of the implementations which I have been a part of have always had at minimum two admins. One was a primary, and the other was a backup. Having just one admin is like having one foot and then expecting to run. It doesn't work very well. Vacations, sick days, projects, other work all factor into it. If you go with two, you might want to stagger schedules, such that one comes in later in the morning and stays later in the evening to do release migrations and to extend the coverage window into the evening, etc. One of the larger implementations (over 300 concurrent, numerous apps, the AR System was their pimary tool) had six staff. There were two developers, one manager and three analysts. Another had two developers, one manager and one analyst. Other implementations of around a hundred or so had two admins as well. Piece of wisdom: develop sub-administrators or local subject matter experts. Farm the care and daily feeding of certain aspects of your system out to them, rather than relying upon your admins to maintain it. That will free them up for more important things. HTH.
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