Dos and don'ts of an IT org chart

IT shops in midsize businesses need carefully thought out organizational hierarchies to function efficiently and effectively, but often they lack careful planning. CIOs may rely on personal influence and relationships to carry functions that ought to be built into the structure itself.

After interviewing more than 200 IT organizations, Marc Cecere of Forrester Research recommends how to deploy staff in a report "The Structure of IT: Midsize Shop Case Studies." This organizational chart of a real company he analyzed highlights good practices and points out possible weaknesses.

This IT department has about 450 members. Forrester defines midsize IT shops as 60 to 800 members, which Cecere acknowledges sounds arbitrary, but departments of that size have similar organizational patterns.

Click to see: organizational chart