Re: [SAGE] determining quantity of support personnel

[Ruth Milner <rmilner@aoc.nrao.edu>]

You're welcome. :-)

> I received one response that said, "...if you have 3 PC admins for 300 
> machines and they are always busy and not able to do anything else but 
> fight fires then you need to add more admins for the PC side."

But y'know, this analysis really isn't that simple either. Are they
always fighting fires because there really is too much for them to
keep up with? Or is it more a question of how the systems and network
are configured, or how reliable the hardware and software are, or
whether they have the right expertise for the current problems, or ... ?

There's no point adding more people if you don't know how to use them
to make the situation better. A good manager will ask exactly that:
show me how this person will make a difference and what skills and
experience they must have to do it. Analyze where people are spending
their time and see if there are any critical failure points (which
may or may not be technology). If so, address them and see where
things reach a new equilibrium. When you reach the point either
where the remaining problems require skills or time investments
that the existing staff don't have, or where no one problem stands
out from the rest as a time-sink that can be targeted, then you'll
have a much better idea of what you need from that additional
person. Don't go into the hiring process without knowing that, or
it will be much harder to get the right person and end up with 
the improvements you want. (I would argue you shouldn't even try
to justify new staff without going through this process, but
that's not usually greeted with enthusiasm from those who have
to do it. :-} )

Ruth.
----
Ruth Milner                           National Radio Astronomy Observatory
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