Balance between project managers and developers? [closed]

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Closed 9 years ago.

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Right now, my project is slightly requirements starved; the project managers can't get good requirements as fast as we can build them, so we're being less efficient than we probably could be.

How many developers per project manager makes for a good balance?

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Depends on the project manager and the project. I've seen some PMs handle teams of 50 to 80 devs; I've seen other's struggle with 2 people.

It sounds to me like this project was greenlighted long before anyone knew what it was supposed to do. Which means you might be feeling good now, but wait until the final month or so. Things will change.

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The Project manager never manages the developers directly. With the help of Tech/Team Leader (who manages 7-8 folks). A typical manager will manage a team of 30+ Developers (along with 4-5 Lead who leads atleast 7 developers each). Also we have Domain Consultant/Technical Consultant/Business Analyst who get the requirements from client and create the System Spec documents which will assist the Tech Lead to convert those requirement into a Design Spec and then the Developer implements it!

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Manager

******* |> Business Analyst (1-2)

******* |> Lead (4-5)

****** * ******* |> Developers (7-8)

******* |> Test Lead (1-2)

****** * ******* |> Tester (2-3)

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There is no such thing as "the golden developers to PM ratio". The problem itself is not likely to be rooted in the ratio itself, but whether you find yourself starved for work on a project it most probably means that the proejct manager is not doing their job very well:

• One too many people were allocated for the project to start with.
• The task you're assigned to is waiting on an external dependency. PM should have provided you with an alternative tasks as part of the ongoing risk management.
• You've completed task early and PM didn't prepare to take advantage of the situation by letting you refactor, bring documentation up to date or similar. Being able to capitalise on an opportunity is just another side of risk management.
• There is a bottleneck in the project organisation, that is to say things cannot be scoped, planned, quality assured as fast as you can deliver new software.

• PM falling for the classic software mistake #19:

  Wasted time during the fuzzy front end. The "fuzzy front end" is the time before the project starts, the time normally spent in the approval and budgeting process. It's not uncommon for a project to spend months or years in the fuzzy front end and then to come out of the gates with an aggressive schedule. It's much easier and cheaper and less risky to save a few weeks or months in the fuzzy front end than it is to compress a development schedule by the same amount.

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We have different roles.

The Project Manager manages the developers, can be up to 15 maybe.

The Business Analysts are the ones that provide the requirements. The proportion is more like one of them for two or three developers.

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Usually 5 developers per 1 project manager works well.

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Why are the project managers getting the requirements? Where I work we have a business analyst that helps get requirements though at times developers can go to end users to get requirements in some cases since not everything is known in the beginning.

We have a handful of developers, one BA, and one project manager. In the past we have had one more BA to help map out what is required and how complicated the overall system would be.

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We have no connection between the two. Each project manager would deal with however many developers are available and assigned to the project. If the project has lots of developers, that's where senior/lead developers and development team managers might get involved rather than the PM deal with them all directly.

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In finding a good ratio, weather it be 5:1, 10:1, etc. I would lean more heavily on the developer side than what you think the average needs will be. If PM/BA shortages crop up, we as developers can "reluctantly" step into a "PM" role to fill the gap. (temporarily, hopefully) It is easier to turn a developer into a PM than a PM into a developer. This makes the team more adaptable.