Laws of Software Engineering · Pattern
Pattern
Brooks's Law
Adding people to a late project makes it later.
How to use it. It holds when work is tightly connected and bringing people up to speed is expensive. It matters less when teams have clear boundaries, work asynchronously, and document well.
How it gets misused. Used to argue for permanent under-staffing. Brooks was talking about adding people to work already in flight. He made no case for long-term scarcity.
Related
- Principle No Silver Bullet There is no single technique that will produce a ten-fold improvement in productivity within a decade. The hard part is the essential complexity of the problem itself.
- Principle Conceptual Integrity A system designed by one mind, or by a few minds in close agreement, will be easier to use and understand than one designed by committee.
- Pattern The Surgical Team A small team of high-talent specialists, organised around a chief programmer, outperforms a larger mixed team on coherent work.
Clusters
- The Brooks cluster - One author whose work shapes most of the field.
- The Team Design cluster - How to organise people for software work.