Communication channels formula where n is team members: n(n-1)/2 [1]
As teams grow, not only do communication channels increase exponentially, individual contribution decreases overall and there is less ownership/responsibility so people care less i.e. a team of 100 has 99 other people to pick up slack, a team of 1 has noone else, a team of 3 has 2 people that will let the third know of slackage, where a team of 100 may never be able to apply that.
Small teams get it all done, and sometimes single people, especially language designers like Guido, Stroustrup, Ritchie, Matz, Eich, etc and especially in the beginning.
Small team strategy even in big companies is very smart and effective to get the best performance out of each contributor. Small team configuration does give some power and worth to employees though so it isn't used as much in large companies that looks at employees as resources in a machine. Employees as resources may work for established products/processes but rarely research and development or creative products.
I agree with your comment, yet I wish to pick a nit:
> n(n-1)/2
> exponentially
I see this a lot in mainstream media (who simply can't help themselves) and increasingly so on HN (where we should know better): using "exponential" as a synonym for "explosive". I'd love for all of us to stop that. n(n-1)/2 isn't exponential growth, it's quadratic, and once you're at more than 10-ish team members the difference is enormous :-)
I should have said parabolic or quadratic but was mainly focused on the project management / team aspects and how it affects individual team members of ever-increasing team sizes.
As teams grow, not only do communication channels increase exponentially, individual contribution decreases overall and there is less ownership/responsibility so people care less i.e. a team of 100 has 99 other people to pick up slack, a team of 1 has noone else, a team of 3 has 2 people that will let the third know of slackage, where a team of 100 may never be able to apply that.
Small teams get it all done, and sometimes single people, especially language designers like Guido, Stroustrup, Ritchie, Matz, Eich, etc and especially in the beginning.
Small team strategy even in big companies is very smart and effective to get the best performance out of each contributor. Small team configuration does give some power and worth to employees though so it isn't used as much in large companies that looks at employees as resources in a machine. Employees as resources may work for established products/processes but rarely research and development or creative products.
[1] https://pm.stackexchange.com/questions/14907/number-of-commu...