Laws of Software Engineering · Pattern
Pattern
The Surgical Team
A small team of high-talent specialists, organised around a chief programmer, outperforms a larger mixed team on coherent work.
How to use it. For work that demands conceptual integrity, prefer fewer, stronger people. The chief programmer makes the decisions. Specialists support the role rather than vote with it. Use it for design-heavy work. It does not suit parallel feature delivery.
How it gets misused. Generalised to "small teams beat big teams always". Brooks's specific claim is about coherent conceptual work, where one mind setting direction matters. For naturally parallel work, the surgical team is no better than any small team, and the chief programmer becomes a bottleneck.
Related
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Pattern
Brooks's Law
Adding people to a late project makes it later.
- 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.
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Pattern
Dunbar's Number
A person can maintain about 150 stable relationships.
Clusters
- The Brooks cluster - One author whose work shapes most of the field.
- The Team Design cluster - How to organise people for software work.