Software Company Organization Chart Arranged by Industriousness and Competency

industriousness_vs_competency.md

Software Company Job Titles by Time and Techical Skill Required

Time Required

• How much time a person must spend in order to do their job effectively.
• Ranges from short to long days.
• I will use the word "industriousness" as a synonym for "time required to do their job effectively."

Technical Skill Required

• How much technical skill and knowledge a person must have in order to do their job effectively.
• Ranges from nontechnical to technical.
• I use the term "competency" as a synonym for "technical skill and knowledge required to do their job effectively"

⚠️ PLEASE READ THIS FIRST

1. A person's title has NOTHING to do with how industriousness or competent they are, even at their given job. Just because someone is a Senior Developer that doesn't automatically make them more competent than an HR employee, nor does it mean that everyone IT is lazier than everyone in Sales. Luck, background, and individual circumstances and goals have a HUGE bearing on who actually does what in any given organization.
2. This is a very limited model, it is only based on two factors. There are hundreds of variables that determine how successful a person will be at a given job. Things like 'people skills' and 'math knowledge' are not represented in this model. Consider the saying, "All models are wrong, some models are useful," you shouldn't use this chart to rank your coworkers.
3. In this model, a person's industriousness and competency are specific to their job. Some jobs you can get by working shorter hours than others and still be effective. That doesn't mean the people doing that job are lazy, just that industriousness is less important for that specific position. Some jobs don't require much technical knowledge or skill to do effectively, that doesn't mean people in that position are dumb, it means that technical competency is less important for them to do well.
4. No position is "better" or "worse" than any other. Everyone in an organization is important. Even employees who may be both nontechnical and not willing to work long days may be extremely useful to an organization. Maybe they are entertaining and fun to be around. Or maybe they have certain connections that make them highly valuable.

Chart

This chart was made with mermaid.js

quadrantChart
    title Software Company Job Title Chart
    x-axis Asynchronous work --> Synchronous work
    y-axis Nontechnical --> Technical
    quadrant-1 Technical and collaborative
    quadrant-2 Technical and independent
    quadrant-3 Nontechnical and independent
    quadrant-4 Nontechnical and collaborative
    Accountants: [0.60, 0.66]
    Sales People: [0.88, 0.15]
    Marketing People: [0.80, 0.22]
    Middle Managers: [0.68, 0.30]
    Support Staff: [0.88, 0.34]
    Executives: [0.79, 0.60]
    Lawyers: [0.66, 0.58]
    Founders: [0.77, 0.79]
    Developers: [0.25, 0.85]
    IT: [0.35, 0.75]
    QA: [0.45, 0.68]
    Temp hires: [0.35, 0.28]
    Part time: [0.15, 0.38]
    HR: [0.55, 0.18]
    Interns: [0.25, 0.10]

Chart Quadrants

1. Top Right Quadrant, Technical and Synchronous Work

• Founders
  • Start the company
  • Generally responsible for company success or failure
• Executives
  • Lead decision maker
  • Determine company direction
• Lawyers
  • Legal representative of the company
  • Protect the company's assets from a lawsuits
• Accountants
  • Manage and account for the money flow
  • Track, collect, correct finances

2. Top Left Quadrant, Technical and Asynchronous Work

• Developers
  • Build the product(s) the company needs to attract customers
  • Implement and update existing products
• IT
  • Safeguard data and information
  • Enable other employees to do their job
• QA
  • Verify accuracy and correctness of product(s)
  • Test product and identify issues

3. Bottom Right Quadrant, Nontechnical and Synchronous work

• Support Staff
  • Do work that executives don't want to do
  • Scheduling
  • Organizing team events
• Middle Managers
  • Translate information from the leadership group to the workers
  • Identify customer needs
  • Articulates product goals
• HR
  • Employee compensation
  • Employee training and safety
  • Hiring and firing employees
• Marketing People
  • Understanding company's place in the market
  • Understanind competitors
  • Brand building
• Sales People
  • Sell the product
  • Customer relationships
  • Building new relationships

4. Bottom Left Quadrant, Nontechnical and Asynchronous Work

• Interns, part time, and temporary workers.

Constructive Feedback Request

Do you think something is missing, incorrect, or unclear? I am open to feedback! Please leave a comment and I will try to respond ASAP. Thanks for reading.

org_chart.png

for lower left quadrant, those aren't really job titles, so remove it... maybe replace it with temporary and part time workers?