Re: The optimal size of a Software Development Team

Hello!

"Dennis Landi" <dennis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:447c4169$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello,

I have seen 4 to 5 man team's work very well. This appears to be a natural size in both corporation's with Software Engineering
Depts. and Software Dev companies as well, ... in my experience.


http://www.qsm.com/process_01.html
[quote]
The goal of our research was to find optimum team size for building medium sized information systems. From the 491 projects that
were analyzed we would conclude that a 3-7 person team has the best performance (3-5 would be the best, but 5-7 people is a very
close second). The 3-5 person data set was not the outright winner in any of the assessment categories however it had very good
performance in all areas. One can speculate on why we see this behavior on the moderately small teams, but common sense suggest the
following reasons:

- This team size provides some protection against the loss of a key person.
- Individual performance is not overcome by group dynamics.
- Team size is probably close to optimum in building motivation and cohesion.
- There is minimum human communication complexity among team members.
- It doesn't require significant management overhead.

Next time you are planning a project think hard about the optimum staffing levels because it can clearly have a significant impact
on the overall results. This study gives you some insights into an application and size domain where many systems are being built
today. Coupled with good peopleware practices you should be able to make a real impact on your organization's bottom line
performance.
[/quote]

Regards, Roman


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