I Heart Small Teams

Why do I like small teams? Metcalfe’s Law, for starters, which is something that Frederick Brooks writes about in The Mythical Man Month. Basically, the amount of communication necessary in a group equals approximately the square of the number of people in the group. As you add people to the group you start needing larger meetings, wikis, politics, etc. All of that takes time and energy, and that time and energy isn’t going directly towards the end result.

Second, the more people on the team the harder it is to manage roles. It is likely that two members will have overlapping skill sets. When people have similar skill sets sometimes they end up in competition with each other. The other guy isn’t doing something right, disagreements, sniping, etc. etc. It’s passive-aggressive kindergarten. Two people with the same skills on the same project rarely results in twice as much productivity. More often than not it means half as much, or less.

Less is more when it comes to teams, too.