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Subject:Re: Doc$ v. Dev$ From:"Edwin Skau" <eddy -dot- skau -at- gmail -dot- com> To:TECHWR-L -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Sun, 26 Mar 2006 22:50:08 +0530
Dick,
In companies that train their beady eyes on the bottomline focus and employ
cost accounting-based strategies to meet productivity/profitability targets,
such idiocy is expected.
The only cue from Wall Street is probably a mention of their
earnings-per-share, no real thumb rule (I have not encountered one to date,
but then I haven't worked in a company that directly did the Wall Street
jive.
>From my experience, budgets are based on overall company strategy. Depending
on the industray, domain, geographic location, growth stage, market
potential and many other factors, a company may staff various departments
according to the area in which they see the most critical requirements.
A company's stock value is influenced by other factors besides
profitability, such as growth potential, and a company's ability to grow and
harness markets.
The growing trend in commoditization may have ushered in a "manufacturing"
mindset in corporate planning, but these so-called thumb rules, are often
wild guesses based on conventional wisdom and numeric platitudes.
Maybe John should be looking to Wall Street for direction...
Edwin
On 3/26/06, Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net> wrote:
>
>
> Edwin,
>
> Just for your education <g>, there actually are certain ratios that come
> up in corporate circles, especially in companies that are publicly owned
> or thinking about becoming publicly owned. On an industry-by-industry
> basis, financial analyst types have rules of thumb about headcount in
> various departments. I doubt very much that they dig down to the detail
> level of writers:programmers or testers:programmers. But they definitely
> look at the ratios of admin (including HR) and sales and marketing to
> research and development.
>
> If you've spent any time in large companies, you've probably encountered
> the project manager's dilemma of having headcount dictated by corporate
> management on a quarter-by-quarter basis with zero regard for the actual
> number of people needed to complete the project on time. Those top-down
> demands are based on the rule-of-thumb ratios coming from Wall Street,
> not on any internal logic.
>
> Dick
>
>
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