Megan — Thu, 25 Sep 2003 15:35:59 +0000

Well, who would you think that the web designer should report to? PR would be the most logical group to be reponsible for the website since any company's website is primarily a PR concern. IT should just be a consultant on backend technologies & techniques. That's the way it is here at the university - Communications & Public Affairs maintains the main website and sets standards for other sites under the uwaterloo domain. The base design and development techniques was a collaboration between C&PA, IT, graphics and maybe some other groups, I don't remember.

I wouldn't see a problem with reporting to two different people as long as the roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. As an example, my boss reports to one person for administrative details (i.e. hiring new staff) and to another person for design & development issues (i.e. best technologies to use for a certain project). So you could report to the PR person in matters of content and the IT person in matters of technology. Design & visuals would be a grey area that could go to either.

druagord — Thu, 25 Sep 2003 15:28:07 +0000

I agree with Julia that they don't 'have to follow something. But on the other side having to report to more then one person is never a good thing du to possible conflict in what the IT and PR see as your responsability. If there is a good communication between both of them then it can work but IMO this not a good way to deal with human resource.

The Webmistress — Thu, 25 Sep 2003 15:09:34 +0000

I work for myself so I can't really help but I would imagine that it depends and varies from company to company, as there would be no 'rules' about structure that any of them 'have' to follow.

andy206uk — Thu, 25 Sep 2003 14:51:31 +0000

Ive never heard of anything like this before and I've done web design for a couple of charity sites.