Why adding software engineers usually slows delivery first
Most executives assume that five more engineers will mean a lot more output. In practice, adding people to a team that is already behind usually makes it later before it makes it faster.
Coordination grows faster than headcount
Every person on a team is a node in a communication network. A team of five has ten possible pairs of people who may need to coordinate. A team of ten has forty-five. The work of keeping everyone aligned grows much faster than the number of hands doing the work.
New people also need time from the people who already know the system. For the first months, the most productive engineers are spending part of their week teaching.
Find the constraint before you hire
Before adding headcount, I ask three questions:
- Where does work wait the longest between being started and being shipped?
- How long does it take to find out that a change was wrong?
- Who owns each decision, and how often does work stall waiting for one?
The answers usually point to a queue, a slow feedback loop or unclear ownership. Fixing those is cheaper than a hire, and it makes every future hire more productive.
How do you keep your technical teams lean? I would like to hear what has worked for you.
