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Discussion on: Book Review: The Mythical Man Month (1995)

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awwsmm profile image
Andrew (he/him)

That's the one bit of advice that I wasn't so sure about from TMM -- that even groups as small as four people should have an "architect" and a "tools designer". But I don't have much experience in the industry, so I'll have to take your word for it!

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James McPherson

My experience is that when you've got fewer than 10 people in the team, many of those roles can be combined - or even just shared around. Though I'd make sure that there's just one architect. If you've got a small team you have to work with and around each other, and I suggest that in that sort of environment everybody should be tasked with process as well as code.

That could get a little interesting if you have people of wildly differing skill levels, but the more senior members should be taking the lead on pulling the juniors up to their level. If you're in a team that small and the seniors aren't doing that, then they're not pulling their weight and you need to find a way to get them to do so.