Latest Reports

• DevOps Engineer Staffing Ratios 2022

  DevOps is a natural extension of agile development into the deployment and operational phases of the system life cycle. It has been a way of life among modern, cloud-native software developers, and it is starting to become popular within enterprise IT organizations as well. This report provides metrics for benchmarking DevOps engineer staffing levels in the current environment. We provide four benchmarks by organization size and sector: DevOps engineering staff as a percentage of the IT staff, users per DevOps engineer, and applications per DevOps engineer. We conclude with recommendations on optimizing DevOps engineer staffing levels. (23 pp., 9 fig.)

  April, 2022

• Data Management Staffing Ratios

  has increased significantly. In this study, we use four benchmarks to assess data management staffing levels: data management staff as a percentage of the IT staff, data management staff as a percentage of the Application Group, users per data management staff member, and applications per data management staff member.

  April, 2022

• IT Quality Assurance Staffing Ratios 2022

  Staffing levels for IT quality assurance personnel have been relatively steady over the past five years for several reasons, including the new ways in which software is being developed and the varying needs of industry sectors. In this report, we first evaluate recent changes in IT QA staffing levels. We then provide three benchmarks by organization size and by sector: QA staff as a percentage of the IT staff, QA staff as a percentage of the Application Group, and applications per QA staff member. We conclude with recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the QA function within the IT organization.

  February, 2022

• Desktop Support Staffing Ratios 2022

  When viewed as a percentage of the total IT staff, the percentage of desktop support personnel remains essentially unchanged. In this study, we use four metrics for benchmarking: desktop support staff as a percentage of the IT staff, PCs per desktop support staff member, applications per desktop support staff member, and users per support staff member. We also assess these ratios by organization size and sector. In addition, we provide benchmarks for the end-user support group, comprised of desktop support, help desk support, and IT training/documentation staff. We conclude with strategies for improving the efficiency of desktop support staff.

  January, 2022

• IT Management and Administration Staffing Ratios 2022

  When it comes to IT managers, it is important to find the sweet spot. Too many, and the IT group can become top-heavy and bureaucratic, too few and IT staff members can feel unsupported and without direction. This report examines how many IT managers a well-run IT organization typically requires, along with staffing metrics for two related administrative functions: IT finance/vendor management and administrative support. To benchmark IT management, we use two metrics: IT managers as a percentage of the IT staff and users per IT manager. We provide metrics for small, midsize, and large organizations. To provide further perspective, we consider the five-year trend in IT managers as an average percentage of the IT staff.

  January, 2022

• Web/E-Commerce Staffing Ratios 2021

  Web/e-commerce support staffing has been generally flat as a share of the typical IT staff over the past five years. But the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a substantial increase in digital interactions with customers, partners, and suppliers. Therefore, we expect staffing demands to increase for web/e-commerce personnel in the coming years. This Research Byte summarizes the five-year trend in web/e-commerce staffing ratios.

  November, 2021

• Server Support Staffing Ratios 2021

  Although the demand for server support personnel has declined since 2012, in recent years there have been small increases, indicating a flattening of the staffing ratio. How many server support staff members does an organization need today? To answer that question, we provide four key benchmarks: server support staff as a percentage of the IT staff, users per server support staff member, physical servers per server support staff member, and OS instances per server support staff member. We provide these metrics for small, midsize, and large organizations. We also assess how industry sector can influence server support staffing metrics. We conclude with recommendations for improving server support productivity.

  November, 2021

• Business Analyst Staffing Ratios 2021

  Business analysts as a percentage of the IT staff has risen from its previous decline, and we expect that this will be the trend. The business analyst serves as a bridge between the IT organization and business users. It is a multifaceted role that is important for ensuring that IT application systems meet business objectives. In this study, we assess staffing levels for the business analysts using four metrics: business analysts as a percentage of the IT staff, business analysts as a percentage of the delivery group, applications per business analyst, and users per business analyst. We also present ratios by organization size and sector.

  November, 2021

• Help Desk Staffing Ratios 2021

  The help desk not only plays a key role in maintaining user productivity, but it also serves as the day-to-day face of the IT organization. This report provides staffing benchmarks for the help desk (service desk). We look at the trend in help desk staffing over a five-year period and provide five benchmarks by organization size and sector: help desk staff as a percentage of the IT staff, users per help desk staff member, applications per help desk staff member, first-call resolution rate, and help desk tickets per end-user support staff member. Because companies organize the end-user support function in different ways, we also provide benchmarks for a combined help desk and desktop support staff. We conclude with recommendations on optimizing help desk staffing levels.

  October, 2021

• Database Administration Staffing Ratios 2021

  As enterprises collect more data and connect more applications, they must ensure that data is secure, reliable, and accessible. But despite these increased demands, companies are restraining the growth in their database administration staff. This report helps IT managers determine whether they are keeping pace with industry standards by providing four benchmarks: database administrators (DBAs) as a percentage of the IT staff, DBAs as a percentage of the Data Center Group, users per DBA, and business applications per DBA. We present benchmarks for small, midsize, and large organizations and examine the influence by sector on these benchmarks. We conclude with best practices for optimizing DBA staffing.

  October, 2021

• IT Project Management Staffing Ratios 2021

  In this study, we assess how many project managers a typical IT organization requires. We present five benchmarks: project managers as a percentage of the IT staff, project managers as a percentage of the application group, users per project manager, applications per project manager, and application programmers per project manager. Our analysis also includes the influence of organization size and industry sector. We conclude with recommendations on assessing the performance of the project management function.

  May, 2021

• Communications System Support Staffing Ratios 2021

  Corporate communications systems have become more complex, although the number of IT specialists who support these systems has stabilized in the past few years. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, IT organizations can benefit from a periodic assessment of their communications system support staffing levels. This study uses three metrics to make that assessment: support staff as a percentage of the IT staff, percentage of support staff in relation to organization size, and support staff spending per user. We provide benchmarks for the composite sample, by organization size, and by sector.

  January, 2021