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  • Define a shop size

    Chuck, Like anything else, I think it is all relative. I would consider your shop medium. But, hey, I am one of three programmers in my office. I could not imagine 800 programmers in an AS400 shop! Just my 2¢. Joe

  • #2
    Define a shop size

    For my current client, and the two prior I am, and have been the only person who does anything related to AS/400/iseries programming, operations, administration, design, implementation, etc. My current client uses the AS/400 for virtually everything short of desktop applications. I would cover this with the "small shop" blanket. Interestingly enough there are just as many programs and applications to maintain as I have found in much larger shops, with many programmers. IMO the thing that keeps a small shop small is budget. Dave

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    • #3
      Define a shop size

      I'd like a poll. My shop has 7 AS/400 and 10 C# programmers and I still consider us a small leaning toward medium sized shop. ... What is your definition of a small, medium or large shop? By employees then
        [*]Small < 50[*]Medium 50 - 150[*]Large > 150[/list]By Organization Structure
          [*]Small: Single IT Dept[*]Medium: Multi IT Dept[*]Large: Federated IT Depts[/list]

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      • #4
        Define a shop size

        Dave said: "By employees then > > > > * Small < 50 > * Medium 50 - 150 > * Large > 150 > Do you mean # of people in I.T.? Or number of programmers? > By Organization Structure > > > > * Small: Single IT Dept > * Medium: Multi IT Dept > * Large: Federated IT Depts Countrywide has 1 I.T. dept with about 800 people. Is that considered small by your definition? chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.

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        • #5
          Define a shop size

          What factors are we thinking of when we determine shop size? The <50, 50-150, >50 sounds good, but a 1-5 person shop can do things much different than a 40 person shop (as one person pointed out, is this IT personnel or programmers)? Also, how do you compare a shop with 15 programmers and 35 400's with a shop with 50 programmers and 1 400 (maybe a bunch of clients?)? I consider our shop to be small-medium with about 15 AS/400 programmers, 120 IT personnel and about 35 400's (a few Linux servers and scads of Wintel servers). Probably small-medium as 400 shops go, and medium over-all? -dan

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          • #6
            Define a shop size

            Chuck Ackerman wrote: > Countrywide has 1 I.T. dept with about 800 people. Is that > considered small by your definition? Just by looking at their carrer offerings, I see Countrywide has QA, Internet Development, Telecom, Project Management, Data Administration, Enterprise Data Architecture and a couple of other departments. They even have 6 VP positions listed for different departments under the Information Technology heading.

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            • #7
              Define a shop size

              Chuck, The numbers I was putting out are IT people involved in developing and maintaing business solutions. So more than programmers but less then the entire IT staff. My understanding of Countrywide is that it has different IT "depts" supporting differnt brandlines/divisions. I would consider Countrywide a Medium size shop. The organizational structure was put up to suggest there are different dimensions to view.

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              • #8
                Define a shop size

                What factors are we thinking of when we determine shop size? I think we can view the shop size in the following dimenstions.
                  [*]IT Employee Size[*]IT Organizational Structure[*]Size of Application Portfolio[*]Number/Size of Servers[*]Diversity of technical skills[/list]Most of which is hopefully driven from Business Diversity and Business Strategy. The <50, 50-150, >50 sounds good, but a 1-5 person shop can do things much different than a 40 person shop (as one person pointed out, is this IT personnel or programmers)? I have no recent experience in small (1-5 people) shops. Are you suggesting that a 1-5 shop can be more agile ? I would have though the more agile/informal processes could scale beyond that to about 40 developers. Also, how do you compare a shop with 15 programmers and 35 400's with a shop with 50 programmers and 1 400 (maybe a bunch of clients?)? Firstly I would ask are these 35 servers running the same application ? If so then I would significantly reduce the number, as I would expect the biggest impact is operational. IBM use server capacity to determine eligibility for their Large System User Group. (Which I guess makes sense since that relates directly to their revenue) "A company using two or more high-end iSeries systems with a total CPW of 10,000 or more on as many as four production systems is eligible to join the LUG. "

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                • #9
                  Define a shop size

                  Dave400 said: "I would consider Countrywide a Medium size shop." For many years (and it may still be the case) Countrywide was considered the largest AS/400 shop in the world. In fact, back in the early '90s I flew with 5 Countrywide execs on IBM's Gulfstream back to Rochester where they were showing Countrywide previews of unannounced technology to keep them from leaving the AS/400 fold. I know that IBM coddles them with kid gloves as they are a flagship account always getting technology before it's announced. So, if you'd consider them a midsize shop the I suggest that there are no large shops running iSeries. chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.

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                  • #10
                    Define a shop size

                    kdunderk said: "Finally, if you are a small to medium shop..." How do we define a small, medium or large shop in an AS/400 environment. I've always been intrigued by blanket size statments. I'd like a poll. My shop has 7 AS/400 and 10 C# programmers and I still consider us a small leaning toward medium sized shop. In my area there are a lot of larger AS/400 shops and my company would be considered small by most of the other ones around. For example, I drive by Countrywide Funding on the way to work. They have about 800 people in their AS/400 based I.T. department. That's a big shop. Nearby is Disney which has hundreds in their shop. A number of the movie studios, like Paramount, use AS/400s and they're relatively large. Nearby Dole Foods is about a medium sized shop Yet there are a number of small shops. General Ribbon has only a handful of people. The city of Thousand Oaks only has about 5 people in their AS/400 shop. Padagonia clothing only has small number of programmers so I'd consider that a small shop. What is your definition of a small, medium or large shop? chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.

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                    • #11
                      Define a shop size

                      For many years (and it may still be the case) Countrywide was considered the largest AS/400 shop in the world..... So, if you'd consider them a midsize shop the I suggest that there are no large shops running iSeries. There are a number of much larger shops in every dimension. Its just the iSeries is not be these organizations' flagship for enterprise processing.

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                      • #12
                        Define a shop size

                        Chuck Ackerman wrote: > What is your definition of a small, medium or large shop? I'm the entire IT department, so I would say that "we're" a small shop.

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