Building an IT Company's Organizational Structure: Any Tips or Suggestions?

Hi,

I would like to know how I can go about building an organizational structure for an IT company. Can anyone suggest a few tips?

Hi,

You will need to sit with top management and work out the functional demarcations first. For example, HR/Operations/Finance/Facilities/Logistics, etc. Even under operations, there could be various verticals that you will have to specify.

At the same time, you will need to draw up a reporting structure in a pyramid form. This can be a top-down approach so that at every stage there is clarity as to who is the reporting head and who are the people reporting to that head.

The designations and managerial levels will have to be then decided by top management since it is possible that different departmental heads would have different skill sets, experience, and involvement, and they would have to be suitably differentiated.

Hope this broad outline will help you draw up a rudimentary organizational chart and then be able to suitably tweak it to meet the management's expectations.

Best Wishes

Hi,

The organizational structure is an enabler to achieve the business strategy. Therefore, you should first develop the business strategy and then work on the structure. Some organizations make the mistake of developing the structure independent of the business strategy, which should be avoided.

Similarly, before working on the structure, you should decide on the number of levels in the organization and the functional verticals.

The structure should be drawn from top to bottom. The key levers of the strategy, which will make or mar the success of the organization, should be adequately manned at the senior level in terms of the relevant competence and the level of the person heading it.

To start with, draw the first-level structure, i.e., of the CEO and his reporting managers, and then unfold every department in terms of the level and number of people. The suffix of each title should reflect the broad responsibility of the slot.

A comprehensive organizational structure would have a job description and a person specification for each slot.

The structure should be developed jointly by the CEO and HR, and for the functional verticals concerned, heads should also be involved.

The structure specifying the number of people, especially at the lower levels, should be based on an assessment of the workload through a suitable job evaluation or work study.

Thanks and Regards,
J C Jhuraney