Mike Rawlins
Sat, 15 Sep 2001 08:43:48 -0700
[EMAIL PROTECTED] asked about benchmark effort measurements for common tasks related to EDI. I would be glad to offer figures on what it usually takes me to perform these tasks, but I'm not sure how much that would help. Based on my long experience in edi and other areas of software, I must confess that I have a somewhat jaded attitude about such benchmarks. About all that they can tell you are averages and ranges, assuming the studies have a large enough sample base. The bad thing about averages is that no member of your EDI staff is average. Programming studies have shown up to a 20 to 1 productivity ratio between the most and least programmers, even when doing the same type of work. I see no reason why EDI support should be much different. In addition, there will probably be so much variation in areas other than staff (such as types of transactions, business process, software tools), that level of effort alone won't mean very much. There are several reasons for doing benchmarks, but I don't necessarily see them as being the best ways to achieve the particular goals for which they are designed. If you want to use them for project planning, you will be better off using your own staff metrics. If you want your staff's performance to improve, it would be more productive to focus on best practices. If you want to set staff compensation, you're probably better off using salary surveys. -- Michael C. Rawlins, Rawlins EC Consulting www.rawlinsecconsulting.com ======================================================================= To contact the list owner: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/edi-l%40listserv.ucop.edu/