The Case of the Cats in Borneo

To illustrate this point, let’s delve into a fascinating anecdote involving the Dayak people of Borneo. When they faced a malaria outbreak, they sought help from the World Health Organization (WHO), which responded by spraying DDT to eradicate the mosquitoes responsible for the disease. While this immediate action seemed to solve the malaria crisis, it inadvertently led to a series of new problems.

The application of DDT not only eliminated mosquitoes but also disrupted the ecological balance. Wasps, which preyed on caterpillars that damage roofs, were also affected. With fewer wasps, the caterpillar population surged, resulting in roofs collapsing under their weight. Furthermore, DDT killed off insects that geckos depended on for food, which in turn led to a decline in the cat population. This decline allowed rats to proliferate, ultimately creating a new crisis as the rats consumed grain and spread the plague.

The WHO's solution? They had to parachute cats back onto the island to reclaim control over the rat population, demonstrating how a simple fix can spiral into greater complications.

Adding More Developers: The Misguided Solution

In software development, we see a similar pattern when teams attempt to resolve delays by adding more developers. This impulse often arises when a project is lagging behind schedule. However, simply increasing the number of developers does not address the underlying issues causing the delays.

When leadership decides to add a group of developers to an already existing team, they might expect a proportional increase in productivity. However, this is rarely the case. The reality is that onboarding new developers takes time—time during which existing team members may be slowed down by the need to assist them. For the first few months, the new developers’ productivity is often low as they acclimate to the project and ask numerous questions, leading to more errors as they learn.

Moreover, adding more developers increases the communication load, as more team members need to coordinate their efforts. This is particularly problematic when team members are working on interconnected features; the likelihood of interfering with each other's work increases as more developers join the project.

The Impact of Poor Development Practices

If the existing development standards are lacking, bringing in more developers can exacerbate issues by generating more technical debt. Without a robust framework in place, the codebase can become increasingly challenging to manage, leading to delays and further complications.

When contemplating a change in team size, it's crucial to think about the system as a whole and the potential ripple effects. For example, if more developers are added without a corresponding increase in testers, the testing phase may become overloaded, delaying the deployment of new software.

In addition, the fundamental issue of requirements must be addressed. If a project suffers from unclear or incomplete requirements, adding more developers will not hasten progress; instead, it will likely lead to confusion and stalled development cycles.

Further Reading

• Why adding more people to a project doesn’t make it go faster
• How we try to speed up IT projects and why it doesn’t work
• Software Development Is Misunderstood