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RE: Org charts

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From: Robinson, Norman B - Washington, DC
Date: Oct 4, 2005 3:20PM

On Tuesday, October 04, Allen asked regarding [WebAIM] Org charts, "Can
anyone lay out a specific doable process people can use to produce and
web-publish org charts?"

Allen,

I don't have any references. I invented my own approach that
might work for you; simply number based on hierarchy and versioning.
This allows you to index the reporting structure based on sorting what I
call the "organizational sequence". It is odd in that it requires the
addition of another decimal indicator that indicates 'depth' of the org
chart. This is sometimes expressed badly by indention.

Example follows, describing a organizational sequence, a tab
space, and an organizational title:

1.0.0.0 President
1.1.0.0 Vice President
1.1.0.1 Assistant Vice President
1.1.0.2 Chief Technical Officer
1.2.0.0 Corporate Program Manager
1.2.1.0 Manager, Disaster Recovery
1.2.2.0 Manager, Corporate Security
1.2.2.1 Manager, Public Websites
1.2.2.2 Manager, Public Communications
1.2.1.1 Assistant Manager, Disaster Recovery
1.2.1.2 Business Systems Analyst
1.2.1.3 Special Programs Manager

Example finished.

The first real defect I see is that this model is best suited
for a strong organizational chain of command. It indicates subordanance
based on position on the numbering sequence. Of course, as with any
model, people expect it to model some unexpected things. One of these
items, seniority, should be tracked separately. This simply shows
organizational reporting order.

So in the above example, the President is the number one person
in the organization chart, since he is number 1.0.0.0. The organization
is four sequences deep as indicated by the numbering sequence. The
lowest member of the organization is listed as Special Programs Manager,
number 1.2.1.3. You can also determine that the Manager, Disaster
Recovery (1.2.1.0) and Manager, Corporate Security (1.2.2.0) report to
the Corporate Program Manager (1.2.0.0).

And, of course, this allows one to sort the org chart in an
spreadsheet. This makes it easy to see who is grouped with whom. I'm
sorry but the explanation for how to use this system is more complex
than simply using it. I provided another example after my signature in
hopes it helps clarify thing further.

Regards,


Norman B. Robinson

Second example:
In a ten person organization where there is a single chain of command
your organizational sequence would be a number (1 to 10).
Org #1, Person #1
Org #2, Person #2
Org #3, Person #3
Org #4, Person #4
Org #5, Person #5
Org #6, Person #6
Org #7, Person #7
Org #8, Person #8
Org #9, Person #9
Org #10, Person #10

In the same organization where 4 people reported individually to
separate managers, the organizational sequence would be #.#. The head of
the organization would be 1.0. The lowest on the org chart would be 1
Org #1.0: Person #1
Org #2.0, 2.1: Person #3 works for person #2. Person #2 reports
to Person #1.
Org #3.0, 3.1: Person #5 works for person #4. Person #4 reports
to Person #1.
Org #4.0, 4.1: Person #7 works for person #6. Person #6 reports
to Person #1.
Org #5.0, 5.1: Person #9 works for person #8. Person #8 reports
to Person #1.
Org #6.0: Person #10, reports to directly to Person #1.