How can it hinder progress? Please list drawbacks only. Thanks!
+1
A:
The biggest issue that comes to mind is the increase in communication complexity. As teams grow larger, so do the number of communication paths. I know there's a term for this, but I can't think of it ATM.
George Marian
2010-06-29 23:34:05
+10
A:
If you assume that half the programmers out there are complete idiots, then each programmer you add to your team adds (on average) .5 idiots. This is why I like working alone - my idiot count can't possibly go higher than 1.
MusiGenesis
2010-06-29 23:35:12
+1 "my idiot count can't possibly go higher than 1."
George Marian
2010-06-29 23:42:30
haha, i like this..it sounds like you've had some bad experiences in the work place :P
Drizzy
2010-06-30 20:42:29
+6
A:
The single biggest issue is communication. The more people applied to the team the more time that is spent communicating within the team. This is covered extensively in "The mythical man month".
Including the following paragraph
Assigning more programmers to a project running behind schedule will make it even later, because of the time required for the new programmers to learn about the project, as well as the increased communication overhead. When N people have to communicate among themselves (without a hierarchy), as N increases, their output M decreases and can even become negative, i.e., the total work remaining at the end of a day is greater than the total work that had been remaining at the beginning of that day, such as when many bugs are created.
Group Intercommunication Formula: n(n − 1) / 2
Example: 50 developers give 50 · (50 – 1) / 2 = 1225 channels of communication.
Steve Weet
2010-06-29 23:36:00
ah yes, I found this on wikipedia too, I believe. I was hoping for something more, but I guess there isn't anything else of significance out there. Thanks!
Drizzy
2010-06-30 20:43:27
+1
A:
With any organization, as size increases it becomes more difficult to communicate - to keep all members informed of what is going on and to avoid duplication or redundant work. This is why most large groups of humans have hierarchical org charts and lots of job titles, whereas small companies generally don't.
For an individual, working on a large team can make it harder for you to participate directly in team decisions and be recognized by the rest of the team for your contributions. For a hyperactive coder, the extra time required by a large team to communicate The Plan and get buy in from required parties can be frustrating.
In short, it's easy to get lost in the crowd.
dthorpe
2010-06-29 23:36:23
A:
If the team starts stepping on each other's toes and pointing fingers about who is responsible for the pain, this can impair morale and productivity.
JB King
2010-07-02 21:17:40