Ideal size working area per developer

Question

What would you say is the idea size physical work area per developer? Not the size of the desktop :-)

Answer 1

at least 2560x1024 ;)

Answer 2

8' x 8' overall. I would love to have bigger, but that allows me to have about 12 feet of desk space, a comfortable area to sit in, and to have a discussion with at two other people in my cube without being overcrowded.

Answer 3

I'd say enough room to stretch your arms out and not hit your neighbor in the face.

Width wise: Room for 2 monitors and a foot and a half to either side for notes books and the like (About 5-6 foot?).

Depth wise enough room for monitors keyboard mouse and a wrist protector (2-3 feet?)

In my last job I had an enourmouse desk, it was a corner unit which was about 7 foot to a side and most of it was wated. It just gathered more clutter.

As for sitting space I'd say enough to get in and out of the desk it I wouldn't crowd them in you want to have about a meter and a half clearance around the chair (not from the centre of the chair) so that they can get out quickly int eh case of an emergency.

Answer 4

I think the most important room that a developer needs is room on the desktop :)

Answer 5

The best workspace I had was about 6 x 4 L shaped desk. Had room for two monitors, lots of drawers, space for files, phone, etc and left lots of room around me for notes, books, whatever reference material I had. Any bigger than that would have been wasted.

That's as far as a cubicle goes, and pretty good for a cube farm. Private office with a big desk, room for guest chairs and a couple book shelves is ideal.

Answer 6

It should be the size of a private office (10'X10') with bookshelves and a place for a visitor to sit and view the screen for code reviews or pair programming. Also there should be a door to close for privacy when required.

Joel Spolsky has written extensively on this subject.

Answer 7

In addition to it being a private office with bookshelves and a place for visitors (as Turnkey mentioned), I would also add LOTS of whiteboard square footage :-)

Answer 8

I like an L shaped desk, but that's because I like having a book or a notepad constantly beside me. I like having a corkboard on a wall near my face so that I can pin reference sheets on it. So that would be something I'd consider when building a work area.

So total area in the 8x10 foot range with a wall beside the desk return.

Answer 9

Of course having a private office is ideal. Not only does it make the developer feel good about having their own office, it also lets them shut the door to keep other people out. Less distractions = more coding = more work done = more $$ for the company.

Obviously giving your developers their own private office may not be possible. If not, give them plenty of space to work with (at least 10x10) and privacy walls around their cube.

Answer 10

In a smaller company, where communication is vital and key to progress, I would recommend an L shaped desk with room for dual monitors up to 22" each, as well as space for taking notes on paper. Last place I worked at, all the devs were in a big room with each corner containing one such desk. I had a window, actually, which was nice.

In a larger company, the cubicle is a wonderful thing. L shaped desk, ad nauseum, but you don't necessarily need/want to talk to everyone that passes by so the walls are great.

Answer 11

A private office is ideal, but not practical in most business settings that I've found. A spacious cube is a must. I've found that a U-shaped or L-shaped workspace is best (I'm more fond of my current U-shaped cube space than I was my old L-shaped one).

Overhead storage for books is critical, as are file drawers (to hold the chocolate, candy, soda, or whatever you need to stash for those coding marathons). Oh, and I guess they're good for paper files as well.

The desk should allow for multiple machines (laptops, workstations, etc.) while still leaving space for notebooks, white boards, etc. Also enough power, network, and other connectors for all the various systems and gadgets. I've tried to get escape routes built in to the raised floor (to avoid clients if needed) but none of my managers think that's a good idea...

Answer 12

Unless you want factory-produced code (e.g. copypasted dataentry web pages), programmers will need some time away from their keyboard; so in addition to an ample desk with room for keyboard/mousepad, notebooks, books, and clear space, the developer should have some space to walk around, stretch his legs for a bit while stretching his mind, if s/he needs to work out a difficult problem.
This doesnt necessarily mean hugantic office suites, if the room is design correctly.

And yes, it is best to provide each with his own private office (preferably with natural light).

Answer 13

I see that lot's of people have already suggested it, but as Joel Spolsky says in his blog entry about the new Fog Creek Offices , L-Shaped desks aren't good for Pair Programming:

Pair Programming. When you make typical L-shaped desks many developers set themselves up in the corner. When they need to collaborate temporarily, or pair program, or even just show something to someone on their screen, the second person has to either lean all the way across the desk or look over the first person's shoulder. To avoid this we designed all the desks to be long and straight so that wherever a software developer sits, there's always room for another person to pull up a chair and sit next to them.

Answer 14

Tom DeMarco in his famous book "Peopleware" (a must read for programmers) references an extensiv study by IBM that covered exactly this. It found out that a developer should have 9-11 m2 including private, semiprivate and public space in his room. And there should be no more then 3 programmers in one office. Another requirement is daylight.

Private space is yours, semiprivate is an area you share with your roommates, and public space is the only area that people not working in this office are allowed to enter. This area should be clearly separated from the others, especially for sound.

This, they state, is most productive and possible to build. Just look at hotels: would you accept a hotelroom without windows?