How Many People Work in Your Internet Department?

WorkinTooHard asks: "Two years ago, I took the job of Internet Marketing Manager for a international company, with a crazy idea that I could convince senior management that the internet wasn't a fad. The only problem was that I didn't expect a (respected) mid-level manager to be the road block. We are in the middle of a major website redesign (the current site has not been updated in over 8 years) and everyone is asking why it takes so long to complete, and almost daily I have to explain that I do not have enough manpower. Of course, I can't prove ROI until the new site is launched (a great Catch22). How many people do you have working in/on your company's Internet/Intranet and Extranet sites and applications? How many full-time web-application developers, content providers, analytics people, UI designers, email marketing people, and so forth?" "Please note that this includes anyone who works directly in building and maintaining your companies current website, electronic marketing and Internet applications. If you can, include the size of your company, number of employess, the number of active products being sold/supported, and how much outsourcing you do? The company I am currently working for has over 13,000 active products and over 30,000 products which need to be supported. We do no outsourcing, have over 900 employess in North America (over 8000 worldwide) and a total of 2 full time web developers, 1 part time developer/SQL guru and 1 content/data person as well as two people in our MarCom office which periodically write copy."

Comments

Push Back

[RunFatBoy.net]

I'm not sure whether to answer the actual question asked, or the implicit call for help....

Anything that people don't understand, they tend to generalize and make higher level models of the underlying processes. I think it'd be beneficial for this manager to sit in on a couple design meetings and/or code reviews so that he can get a feel for all that is involved.

I think you're going to see wildly varying answers regarding sizes of teams, depending upon site complexity, etc. The real issue here is that it looks like you need to learn to push back.

Your posting sounds more like a distress message than an actual question. If you feel you're understaffed and you're feeling heat from the top, look these guys straight in the eye and say "If you refuse to offer more staff, we can only reasonably expect to complete around this date", and don't flinch. They'll respect you more in the long run and know you mean business.

Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/ -- Exercise, Web 2.0 style.

Re:Push Back

[AKAImBatman]

I think you're going to see wildly varying answers regarding sizes of teams, depending upon site complexity, etc. The real issue here is that it looks like you need to learn to push back.

That's a nice sentiment, except for one problem: He's a manager, not a coder. He doesn't need to push back, he needs to spend his time managing. Which means that instead of coding, he needs to spend his time doing other things like:

• Market the idea to the rest of company. Sending out mockups and ROI case studies of other companies can entice your manager and/or his manager, and do a lot to help sell why more resources are needed.
• Use your budget more effectively. Your company may not have given you leave to hire full-time employees, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can't hire contractors to build tricky or time-consuming portions. Bonus points if you can get stuff auto-generated.
• Build trust. You need to gain a reputation as someone who gets things done, and can be trusted with a task. If you build that trust, you'll be trusted that you'll use extra resources wisely rather than empire-building. Yeah, it's difficult with limited resources. Figure it out. You're a manager now, so you'd better find a way.
• Don't make excuses. Learn to put a positive spin on timetables, instead. Using tools like Microsoft Project (blech) can allow you to chart out how many man-hours something will take. It can also help you show how it will get done faster if you have more resources.
• Don't commit to a project unless you and your superiors are agreed on the timetables. Eveyone expects some slippage on large projects, but too much will cost you dearly. If you already agreed to a messed up timetable (or didn't give one!), then you may need to eat some crow when you present a realistic projection. You should still give that projection, though! Without it, you'll just look incompetent. With it, you'll at least admit to a mistake and ask to correct it.

All in all, I don't hold very much hope for the story submitter. Being a manager is very different from being a programmer. If he's been in his position for two years and hasn't learned how to play the game yet, then he may not be cut out for it. Being a manager is a cut-throat business, and there are only two ways to survive: Either be really good, or be really good at brown nosing. The former is usually preferrable; especially if your bosses are no slouches.

Re:Push Back

[EnronHaliburton2004]

Contractors? You mean those guys who send out mock-ups 2 months into a project, but wait for 5 months into a 6 month project ask me what "Websphere" is (It's the platform for product that they are replacing), "Oh CVS, I wasn't able to access the account you gave me 4 months ago?" and my favorite "We tried to download the images via FTP, but couldn't connect. Eh? What's 'SFTP'? We thought that was atypo."

By that time, the business is totally committed, the boss failed to hold the contractors to the contract, and the boss' boss is waiting for a deliverable. You could certainly cancel the contract, but that pretty much means loosing your job. Maybe they deserve to get fired.

I've never been a decision maker in a project like this, but I would say this happens more then half the time with businesses that I work with. Past schedule and over budget.

Use an iterative approach

[ddent]

Try and see how much the problem can be broken down. Chances are, it is possible for you to release more functionality over time, and get something out the door soon. There is probably something you could do that would get you ROI pretty much tomorrow.

Re:lone wolf at my state agency

[Tim C]

I know it's easy to say when you have the luxury of not being in that position, but seriously, tell them to shove their job. They're asking for the impossible and not even paying you for attempting it.

Life's too short, and no job is worth that.