Software Industry personnel averages (accurate & free)

[John]

Hi,

I'm considering building a software product, and am putting together a
business plan. Basically, it's a web application that I am planning
to; a) sell to mid-sized companies for installation on their servers,
and b) become an Application Service Provider (ASP) by hosting a
version of the application for smaller companies.

Most of the business research is pretty straight forward, but I don't
know where I can find industry averages for software maintenance
personnel. Basically, how many of each are needed to maintain a
product with N active users?
-Tech support
-Maintenance developers
-etc ...

My own experience is pretty much useless for estimating, since the
software I write runs pretty much maintenance free for its lifetime.
Where as the companies I've worked at had such poor quality they
needed 1 full time person per 100 customers! Even though I'm writing
this software myself and will probably achieve lower than industry
standards for the first 2 years, I prefer to base my numbers on
industry averages.

Do any of you know where I can find these numbers? Accurate? And for
free?

Thanks in advance,
John

[John A. Weeks III]

Post by John
Most of the business research is pretty straight forward, but I don't
know where I can find industry averages for software maintenance
personnel. Basically, how many of each are needed to maintain a
product with N active users?
-Tech support
-Maintenance developers
-etc ...

There is no industry average since the number vary widely
from application to application. It also depends on how
many parts there are. You seldom see oracle DBA's able
to or intersted in fixing MS boxes. Dittos for coders
and UNIX admins.

My rule of thumb is that you can get all the help you need
for $25 per hour from India.

-john-

[Sgt. Sausage]

"John" <***@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:***@news.supernews.com...
[snip]

Post by John
I don't
know where I can find industry averages for software maintenance
personnel. Basically, how many of each are needed to maintain a
product with N active users?
-Tech support
-Maintenance developers
-etc ...

[snip]

Post by John
Do any of you know where I can find these numbers? Accurate? And for
free?

How long is a piece of string? Seriously!

I've been involved in projects where the original
source code was written in 1972 -- with literally
millions of lines of source -- that needed no (zero,
nada, zilch, none, didley-squat!) maintenance until
1996 when they started revising the data file formats
for 4-digit years (early Y2K effort).

I've also been on projects that had 50 or more
"maintenance developers" who were over-booked --
too much work and not enough workers to keep up
with requested changes/enhancements.

IMO, you're just going to have to pull a SWAG out
your arse on this one and hope you come close.

[John]

Thanks for your patience, I get verbose sometimes. ;-)

I agree that I will just have to guess.

It has also been suggested; I should not be including 'free' support
and that I should be charging per hour. I've managed to twist this
into limited free support ( 3hours?) and charging for anything over &
above. This will help me nail down some numbers at least.

Thanks again,
John

[Don Wallace]

Sarge is right. Also, so much depends upon the development language,
the quality of the code being maintained, and the ability and
willingness to transfer the knowledge to newer developers.

A common problem with maintenance of business products is that the
people who are knowledgeable about the domain get promoted or move on,
so, very often, the maintenance people have to re-learn everything
that was figured out during development. While management is trying to
play pretend that the maintenance is a "grunt", "self explanatory"
function.

If it's your own product and you plan for this, you should do much
better than industry norms, which I tend to believe are abysmal.

Post by John
Thanks for your patience, I get verbose sometimes. ;-)
I agree that I will just have to guess.
It has also been suggested; I should not be including 'free' support
and that I should be charging per hour. I've managed to twist this
into limited free support ( 3hours?) and charging for anything over &
above. This will help me nail down some numbers at least.
Thanks again,
John

[Sgt. Sausage]

441. For myself, I confess that, so soon as the Christian religion reveals
the principle that human nature is corrupt and fallen from God, that opens
my eyes to see everywhere the mark of this truth: for nature is such that
she testifies everywhere, both within man and without him, to a lost God and
a corrupt nature.

442. Man's true nature, his true good, true virtue, and true religion, are
things of which the knowledge is inseparable.

443. Greatness, wretchedness.--The more light we have, the more greatness
and the more baseness we discover in man. Ordinary men--those who are more
educated: philosophers, they astonish ordinary men--Christians, they
astonish philosophers.

Who will then be surprised to see that religion only makes us know
profoundly what we already know in proportion to our light?

444. This religion taught to her children what men have only been able to
discover by their greatest knowledge.

445. Original sin is foolishness to men, but it is admitted to be such. You
must not, then, reproach me for the want of reason in this doctrine, since I
admit it to be without reason. But this foolishness is wiser than all the
wisdom of men, sapientius est hominibus.[71] For without this, what can we
say that man is? His whole state depends on this imperceptible point. And
how should it be perceived by his reason, since it is a thing against
reason, and since reason, far from finding it out by her own ways, is averse
to it when it is presented to her?

446. Of original si



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[John A. Weeks III]

they set themselves to walk more strictly, and confess
their sins, and perform many religious duties, with a secret hope of
appeasing God's anger, and making up for the sins they have committed.
And oftentimes, at first setting out, their affections are so moved,
that they are full of tears, in their confessions and prayers; which
they are ready to make very much of, as though they were some atonement,
and had power to move correspondent affections in God too. Hence they
are for a while big with expectation of what God will do for them; and
conceive they grow better apace, and shall soon be thoroughly converted.
But these affections are but short-lived; they quickly find that they
fail, and then they think themselves to be grown worse again. They do
not find such a prospect of being soon converted, as they thought:
instead of being nearer, they seem to be further off; their hearts they
think are grown harder, and by this means their fears of perishing
greatly increase. But though they are disappointed, they renew their
attempts again and again; and still as their attempts are multiplied, so
are their disappointments. All fails, they see no token of having
inclined God's heart to them, th



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[John]

of one Mr. Cross; and of a very
considerable revival of religion in another place under the ministry of
his brother the Rev. Gilbert Tennent; and also at another place, under
the ministry of a very pious young gentleman, a Dutch minister, whose
name as I remember was Freelinghousa.

This seems to have been a very extraordinary dispensation of providence;
God has in many respects gone out of, and much beyond, His usual and
ordinary way. The work in this town, and others about us, has been
extraordinary on account of the universality of it, affecting all sorts,
sober and vicious, high and low, rich and poor, wise and unwise. I
reached the most considerable families and persons, to all appearance,
as much as others. In former stirrings of this nature, the bulk of the
young people have been greatly affected; but old men and little children
have been so now. Many of the last have, of their own accord, formed
themselves into religious societies in different parts of the town. A
loose careless person could scarcely be found in the whole neighborhood;
and if there was any one that seemed to remain senseless or unconcerned,
it would be spoken of as a strange thing.

This dispensation has also appeared very extraordinary in the numbers of
those on whom we have reason to hope it has had a saving effect. We have
about six hundred and twenty communicants, which include almost all our
adult persons. The church was very large before; but persons never
thronged into it



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[s***@peoriadesignweb.com]

I think you are heading for failure when you talk of "business plan",
"employees" and "sell to mid-size companies" before you have even
developed your widget! Walll street likes people to think in this
premature fashion which is why all those dot.coms failed miserably. The
reality is neccessity drives change. You can not magically create a
widget and infuse it into "mid-size companies" overnight. If business
were that easy, we would all be doing it.

You have to start small and develop your product by offering it for
free to non-profits and volunteer organizations. From there you can
build in features that customers really want and need. Then you will
have an established baseline and can market your product to larger
companies and you can start charging them.

But start small and free and with time the dollares will come if your
widget really is something useful. If it's not useful when it's free,
then you can be assured nobody is going to pay for it if you charge
them. If you hit that point don't give up, but develop another widget,
perhaps based on the strengths of the failed widget. That's what I have
been doing for the past year.

I highly recommend reading Wayne Lunderg's writings on Entrepreneurship
at http://home.att.net/~impresario/Index.htm

==========================
http://PeoriaDesignWeb.com
e-Software Developers

[John]

Thanks for the feedback.

I am taking the business plan approach as an experiment after previous
business failures and I want to figure out how much to charge in a more
structured way. This approach has already prevented me from doing
other things which would have only distracted me from my true goal.

I also have a disability which prevents me from doing my own sales or
even using a phone. This forces me to plan a bit more ... like how
will it get sold, and how to provide support.

I have considered the non-profit thing and am planning to approach a
few organizations who would be a good fit when I get to the beta stage.

Thanks again,
John