Re: OT: The mythical man month - have we learned nothing?

[snowhare]

in reply to OT: The mythical man month - have we learned nothing?

Ask him if using twelve people to pick up a small desk and move it down a hall and through a door to another room would work better/faster than using six people to do it.

[Anonymous Monk]

I like the "moving a piano down a narrow staircase" metaphor better. One person isn't enough; 100 is too many, and it's a miserable job no matter how many people are involved.

[aufflick]

I love it! I've never heard this analogy before - it's much more useful than the classic 9 month birth one (which my previous Boss's mum used to say apparently!).

[Anonymous Monk]

As far as I know, I just coined it today. :-) But I've certainly seen cartoons involving it, so perhaps there's some form of "prior art". :-)

[spiritway]

If you think about it, though, moving a piano down a narrow flight of stairs is easy for one person to do. Just get behind it and give it a good shove. Problem solved ;-).

[Anonymous Monk]

Your algorithm fails for winding staircases. :-)