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I am looking for models of development team structures of companies that meet
the following profile:
they develop commercial software products
the development team is made up of 100-300 technical employees.
Specifically, I am gathering information about how the overall
technical/development team is structured, as well as how the documentation team
fits into that organizational structure. We are looking at possibly
re-organizing our division to streamline our development processes, and we are
looking at similar companies to see what they do.
If your company fits that profile, please reply and describe your overall
organizational structure, with commentary about how effective that structure is,
both from a software development perspective and from a documentation
development perspective.
OK, since I am asking for this, I will share our org structure with you.
We have a little over 100 people in our development division, which is made up
of the following groups:
tools/technology/R&D (We develop our own CASE tool, which we use to develop
apps. We also sell it as a product.)
application development (We develop information solutions for higher ed:
student enrollment management, HR, Financial, and Fund Raising systems)
custom and conversion (teams that convert data from clients' legacy systems
to ours, and provide custom programming services)
software process engineering group (a team that works on infrastructure
issues such as development processes, standards, and training/development)
Within the tools/technology/R&D group, there are several small teams that are
broken out by product or functional role. The documentation specialists for this
group belong to a team made up of programmers, QA, and doc specialists.
Within the application development group, there is a team of
programmers/designers/analysts for each product, a team made up of all QA
specialists, and a team made up of all doc specialists. We basically work in a
"strong matrix" structure, where project teams are assembled with a leader, then
representatives from programming, QA, and documentation. I manage the team of
doc specialists, providing project guidance to ensure consistency, and
training/developmental/budgetary support to the doc staff. The writers sometimes
feel like they have 2 bosses: their project leader, and me, the documentation
manager.
The custom and conversion group is made up of primarily programmer/analysts who
work with clients to identify their custom/conversion needs, then implement
them.
The software process engineering group is made up of a training coordinator and
two documentation specialists, who focus on documenting our standards and
development methodology. The director of that group also supervises the admin
support for our division.
We feel like this structure works now, but it could be improved. If you can
share any details about how your doc team is structured, how your division is
structured, and how the two work together, I would really appreciate it.
PLEASE reply to me directly, as I get this listserv in digest form.
Thanks -
Charles Fisher
Documentation Manager, Datatel, Inc.
cdf -at- datatel -dot- com
documentation -at- datatel -dot- com
