Comments on: The high cost of overhead when working in parallel

By: Matthew D Edwards

Matthew D Edwards — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:55:19 +0000

Nice, simple explanation. Well done. Reflecting on Fred Brooks’ Mythical Man-Month materials and in particular … (n^2-n)/2 the logic on complexity as it relates to human interaction alone.

By: Serialize Your Projects | Thought Clusters

Serialize Your Projects | Thought Clusters — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:17:37 +0000

[...] Schmidt explains how doing several projects in parallel is counter-productive because of the high overhead costs involved. Projects must be tracked much longer, more documents [...]

By: stephan

stephan — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:51:13 +0000

@Jörg: “And pair-programming gives a lot of benefits, ie constant review, better focus, higher quality of code.”

I totally agree.

By: Jörg Thönnes

Jörg Thönnes — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:44:44 +0000

With regard to the upper limit of developer which could work on one feature: If you do pair-programming, you can work with 2-4 developers on a feature where no more than 1-2 developers are possible. And pair-programming gives a lot of benefits, ie constant review, better focus, higher quality of code.

By: stephan

stephan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:37:51 +0000

@Harald: I think it applies more to features and projects, than stories. Sometimes I do slip into agile talk, because I’m using Scrum for some years. Now I mix nomenclature. I’ll try to be more focused on nomenclature next time.

By: Harald Walker

Harald Walker — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:07:02 +0000

What is the difference between features and projects? In the text you talk about ‘projects’ but the graphics use ‘features’. And since it takes 5 developers one month the deliver one ‘feature’ I guess it could be called an epic, which can be split up into smaller features and would make a nice Sprint goal.

By: stephan

stephan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:58:57 +0000

@Itay: Ooops. thanks.

By: stephan

stephan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:57:06 +0000

@Matthew: You’re right, the upper limit is the ability to parallize tasks and features. Often one needs to be flexible during the life cycle. Few developers in the beginning, then max out, fewer developers in the end.

By: Matthew Barcomb

Matthew Barcomb — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:46:15 +0000

What if it only makes sense to have at most 2 developers on Feature 1? (and other similar scenarios).

By: Itay Maman

Itay Maman — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:37:45 +0000

Excellent!!

Typo: parallel -> serial (next to last sentence)

By: Metaflex » One thing at a time please – I’m a developer…

Metaflex » One thing at a time please – I’m a developer… — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:52:00 +0000

[...] With reference to: http://codemonkeyism.com/high-cost-overhead-working-parallel/ [...]