Predicting Staffing Sizes for Maintaining Computer- Networking Infrastructures by
Lon D. Gowen · 2000
MITRE recently completed a three-month study to assess the “state of the practice” in staffing levels for maintaining a computer-networking infrastructure (CNI). The project determined the state of the practice by looking at technical papers on the subject, conducting organizational and technical-expert surveys, and looking at software models that attempt to predict staffing levels. The research found very few quantitative heuristics available in the literature; however, the data we did find showed that typical CNIs have a 1:42 FTE-to-user ratio; that is, one full-time equivalent of CNI staffing per 42 users using a typical CNI. This number can vary, up or down, by 17% or more depending on the details of the CNI. The DoD, as well as the private sector, can use the results of this study to predict initial CNI support levels, to support their current level of staffing, or to justify an increase or decrease in staffing. Additionally, this paper breaks down CNI support into the four major areas—systems administration (SA), break fix (BF), help desk (HD), and configuration management (CM)—and provides ratios for predicting each of them within a typical CNI.