Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals): Three people for version 1
How many people should be on a team for a first release? Well, the guys over at 37signals have posted the answer in a blog article entitled Three people for version 1. I find myself agreeing with their analysis. I am not sure that 3 is necessarily the magic number, but I definitely agree that a small team is much better than a large one.
At work, we are trying to do the first construction iteration of some software with a distributed team of about 20 developers, several team leads, a project manager, a database modeler, a DBA, an Oracle developer, and a few requirements people. You can image how quickly this project is being developed. We are already a week late on our first milestone and it looks like it will be another week before we reach it. Is this because we have too many people on the team, definitely. It is also because we do not have the right people on our team.
If you can’t build your version 1 with three people, then 1. you need different people, or 2. you need to slim down your version 1….But keep it in mind: three for version 1. Remember, it’s better to make version 1 half a product than a half-assed product. Three people will keep you closer to half a product and a cleaner, tighter, simpler base on which you can grow later
I definitely agree with these statements. Part of the problem at work is that we do not have the right people and we are trying to do to much. As such, we are failing on both points and the final product is going to suffer for it.
If you follow the link above to the article make sure you read through the comments as well because they help to reinforce the point that a small team will succeed where a large team will fail.