Software Deployment

I don't think this is something you can set in stone with a policy as such.

For most clients I've worked with, the cut-off is 5 users. However, there will always be exceptions. For example, will you want to have to ask your company Chairman and his assistant if you can sit at their desktop/laptop to install [whatever] or would you rather have your deployment system take care of it?

Depend on your global IT strategy

There are numerous factors that need to be considered when making the determination about whether to package an app or manually install it. All of them boil down to money. For example, if the cost (time) of packaging an application is equal or less than the cost (time) of manually installing it, it should be packaged. So say it takes 8 hours to package an application that takes 30 minutes to install manually (e.g. by a desktop tech), then the breakeven point would be 16 users. If you only had 10 users, it might be better to just manually install it.

Having said that, if you expect more users in the future, you may consider packaging it anyway with the assumption that it will save time (money) in the long run for the company.

IMHO, all the packager can do it make suggestions, it is up to the bean counters to decide what the "magic" number is. I've worked in places ranging from 50 users as the magic number, all the way down to zero - *every* application gets packaged.

Thank you very much for your thoughts. Much appreciated