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Re: Pardon me for asking, but...

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Joerg Meier wrote:
> David Lamb wrote:
>> Do people still read Brooks' "Mythical Man-Month"? He said "adding 
>> people to a late project makes it later". So if you have a programming 
>> "emergency", maybe hiring somebody at the last minute isn't going to 
>> help. Nevertheless, people seem to do it.
> 
> That truthism [sic] doesn't mean no project no matter how close or far from its
> deadline can ever be sped up no matter the amount of programmers added.

What exactly does that assertion contribute to the discussion?

It is such an overwhelmingly bad idea to throw staff into the middle of a 
programming team in the middle of a project, with such consistently negative 
results when tried as has been objectively verified for decades, that Brooks 
is not the only one to offer the advice to avoid it, nor to substantiate that 
advice with evidence.

To paraphrase Steve McConnell's /Rapid Development/, it's not that late 
addition of personnel to a project is the worst mistake one can make, but it's 
repeated so often with such predictable (harmful) results that it deserves to 
be labeled a "classic" mistake.

You won't always lose betting against the casino, but don't back a plan based 
on beating the house.

-- 
Lew

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Pardon me for asking, but... pat.trainor@gmail.com - 2012-10-26 11:47 -0700
  Re: Pardon me for asking, but... Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-10-26 12:25 -0700
    Re: Pardon me for asking, but... David Lamb <dalamb@cs.queensu.ca> - 2012-10-26 17:15 -0400
      Re: Pardon me for asking, but... Joerg Meier <joergmmeier@arcor.de> - 2012-10-27 20:43 +0200
        Re: Pardon me for asking, but... Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-10-28 10:02 -0700
          Re: Pardon me for asking, but... Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-10-30 23:06 -0400
            Re: Pardon me for asking, but... Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-10-31 12:21 -0700
              Re: Pardon me for asking, but... Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-10-31 16:37 -0300
                Re: Pardon me for asking, but... David Lamb <dalamb@cs.queensu.ca> - 2012-10-31 18:24 -0400
                Re: Pardon me for asking, but... Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-11-06 12:39 -0800
                Re: Pardon me for asking, but... bob smith <bob@coolfone.comze.com> - 2012-11-06 11:50 -0800
        Re: Pardon me for asking, but... Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-10-28 20:53 -0700
      Re: Pardon me for asking, but... Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-10-30 22:40 -0400
    Re: Pardon me for asking, but... pat.trainor@gmail.com - 2012-10-26 14:28 -0700
  Re: Pardon me for asking, but... Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-10-26 20:56 -0400
  Re: Pardon me for asking, but... bob smith <bob@coolfone.comze.com> - 2012-10-29 07:09 -0700
    Re: Pardon me for asking, but... David Lamb <dalamb@cs.queensu.ca> - 2012-10-29 10:38 -0400
      Re: Pardon me for asking, but... Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-10-29 09:43 -0700
  Re: Pardon me for asking, but... Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-10-31 16:26 -0700

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