What Drives The Size Of IT Functions?

August 6th, 2013

Marc Cecere

With contributors:

Khalid Kark , Andrew Smith

Summary

Benchmark data such as the percentage of IT people in an organization or IT spending compared to revenue is useful, but it won't determine how much to spend or what the appropriate size of a specific group should be. IT organizations are made up of multiple parts; the size of each part is affected by various drivers differently. For example, the number of people in an architecture group is strongly affected by the project work they perform, whereas infrastructure is affected more by the number and variety of systems. This report combines the results of our staffing benchmark survey with the results of a study that analyzed activities that affect the size of individual groups. This research identifies the three primary drivers — 1) complexity; 2) projects and processes; and 3) structure and sourcing — that influence the size of five core IT groups.

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