posted on Thursday, July 14, 2005 4:02 PM
by
Simon Thorneycroft
More people or better people?
Whilst discussing problem software projects with a colleague, once again an excerpt from
Agile Software Development came into my mind. In the chapter about software development methodologies
Cockburn points out the example of Kent Arett, who whilst at
Fingerhut experienced a depressed 80 strong IS department that was unable to develop new software because of the support demands of the older software. Rather than take the route that many IT managers would, that of increasing the number of staff, he actually cut staffing levels by 25%. The better people were kept and their salaries increased. The resulting improvement in morale and subsequently output meant that only 15 staff did support and the rest could get on with enabling the business by developing software. A lesson to learn?