herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong [DCS]) (03/01/85)
In article <766@ecsvax.UUCP> dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady) writes: >It seems the >Mongol Hordes operated as relatively small, fast, expert bands. >Destructive they were, but they were very efficient at it and were >almost always outnumbered by the opposition. (If you think about it, >it's relatively unlikely that nomadic invaders would outnumber an >indigenous population.) > >So maybe the REAL Mongol Horde approach might well be imitated by >programming groups. (Or at least by headhunters in net.jobs :-) >-- >D Gary Grady curious. this is exactly the approach (small, expert programming teams) espoused by what's his name in ``The Mythical Man Month''. for many typical projects, this is probably the best approach, but too often it's the most junior programmers that do the most programming and they don' always know what they're doing. as another aside, gerald weinbaum's book ``The Psychology of Computer Programming'' sort of nibbles at this issue without really saying whether he thinks small teams are better than massive programming efforts or not. for those who haven't read either of these books, i suggest that you make an effort to find them and have a look. Herb Chong... I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble.... UUCP: {decvax|utzoo|ihnp4|allegra|clyde}!watmath!water!watdcsu!herbie CSNET: herbie%watdcsu@waterloo.csnet ARPA: herbie%watdcsu%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa NETNORTH, BITNET, EARN: herbie@watdcs, herbie@watdcsu
mercury@ut-ngp.UUCP (Larry E. Baker) (03/03/85)
> curious. this is exactly the approach (small, expert programming > teams) espoused by what's his name in ``The Mythical Man Month''. for > [Herb Chong...] The book is 'The Mythical Man Month, Essays on Software Engineering,' by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. FPB was project manager for System/370 and later manager for OS/370 development. It's a good book.... -- - Larry Baker @ The University of Texas at Austin - ...{seismo!ut-sally | decvax!allegra | tektronix!ihnp4}!ut-ngp!mercury --