[Nottingham] Connect 3D Radeon 7000 AGP and Five Button Mouse info

Colin Saxton colin.saxton at ntlworld.com
Fri Oct 28 22:09:42 BST 2005


On Fri, 2005-10-28 at 16:37 +0100, Martin Garton wrote:
> 
> On a less abstract note, I have personally witnessed and been involved
> in at least two projects where management decisions to increase the
> number of developers due to rapidly approaching deadlines has noticeably
> slowed development and pushed the project further back.  The problem
> with this is that it's counter-intuitive and some people seem prepared
> to believe their intuition even when it flies in the face of the
> available evidence.
> 

How many times have I seen this??? The problem is not straight forward.
If you introduce all developers at the beginning of a project and
organise them to what needs to be done then the job at hand will get
done...Introducing them into a started project will mean that those
already working in the project need to take time to explain what is
required...so you have an initial slowdown but this will speed up as
they workout what is required of them...

The key word here is management and being able to split down a project
into sub projects that can be worked on separately...

Introducing developers or anyone into a started project will introduce a
slowdown into the overall project, for an initial time so the project
manager has to do some simple maths and say will introducing someone
into the project slowdown the overall project UPTO THE POINT IT IS
FINISHED or will the introduction actually be a spike along our nice
smooth development machine and shorten the time??

In the end you can introduce more developers into a project and get it
done quicker but you have to know what they are being introduced to and
if they are going to pick it up quickly enough...they have to have the
work at hand almost straight away!.

Lets look at another example...I have a container with sand which needs
to be emptied by using a spade...there is only enough space in the top
of the container to fit one person digging...so introducing more diggers
isn't going to get the job done quicker...If I can rip the lid off
(planning and management) then I can introduce more diggers since there
is room for them to work...If the lid was off at the beginning then I
can introduce as many diggers as can fit in the area...the job gets done
quicker!!

Development is like having an infinite container of ideas but the
container has a number of holes through out that people are digging
through...Increase the digging area (manage and plan (objects/interfaces
for programming!)) and you can introduce more developers with minimum
fuss. 

In short "Divide and conquer". You can introduce more developers to a
project and get it done quicker...timing and planning is what is needed.

Piss poor management is what makes software projects fail...not the
workers.




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