Small teams pack a punch

Before adding more resources to a project team to accelerate delivery have realistic expectations about the effect. Measure the impact of learning curve and management overhead and be sure that the increase in productivity is worth the additional expense.

A recent study by QSM collected data from 564 projects completed since 2002 and revealed that large teams don't complete projects much faster than small teams. But they are significantly more expensive. Teams with around 34 people on average completed a 100,000-line project in 5.6 months at a cost of $2.1 million, while teams of around 4 people on average took about two weeks longer but cost just $294,000. Thus, shaving two weeks off the schedule cost some companies as much as $1.84 million.

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posted by Simon Baker @ permalink
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