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Large Dev Teams Do Not Make For Quick Dev Cycles

Posted by Zonk on from the throw-more-monkeys-on-the-pile dept.

Josh Bennett writes "1UP has a recent interview with Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Producer Mathieu Ferland where he talks about the difficulties in developing the game. In the article, Ferland said there are 120 people working on the game. That's not unheard of for a big budget EA game, but those games come out every year and the new Splinter Cell is taking more than two years at this point. Interesting read."

6 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. No duh, you friggin idiot. by Safety+Cap · · Score: 4, Informative

    In any group, the number of communication paths is

    C =
    n(n=1)/2
    Obviously, the larger the group, the more communications events that it will require to get the job done, but it is not O(n).

    A team of two developers only has 1 communication path.
    A team of 10 has 45.
    A team of 20 has 100.

    News for social misfits, stuff that is glaringly obvious.

    --
    Yeah, right.
    1. Re:No duh, you friggin idiot. by ChaosDiscord · · Score: 3, Informative

      Several people have pointed out that management is supposed to solve the problem. Indeed, with good management you can have a team of 120 working quite effectively.

      However, mediocre to bad management is far more common than good management. With mediocre or worse management the team ends up routing around management problems and reestablishing those hundreds of communication paths. Thus, your pessimistic estimates are reasonable for real world situations.

      The key is good management. Finding and retaining good management is left as an exercise for the reader.

      --
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  2. Stunning revelations from the 1960s! by cbiffle · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sounds like some more people should read Brooks' Mythical Man Month. There's a reason this 40-year-old book still inhabits my bookshelf at work.

    'Course, from how EA seems to treat their programmers, it sounds like they're not really considering any human aspects of the cycle, so I suppose this is not surprising.

  3. Re:sure, ask a carpenter by vasqzr · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can't build a house in a week no matter how many men you throw on it. After a point, your returns diminish.

    Have you ever seen Habit for Humanity build them in one day?

    The only thing you have to wait on is the cement and paint to dry.

  4. Mythical Man-month still applies by xmas2003 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Slashdot reviewed Fred Brook's classic The Mythical Man Month way back in 1998. This book was actually written in 1975 based on is experience in the 1960's ... so while the /. review is 6 years old, it still holds true today and applies in this situation IMHO ...

    --
    Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
  5. I think I should point out by ikkonoishi · · Score: 2, Informative

    That all of them aren't coders.

    120 people seems to include all the artists and map designers as well.

    Art works a lot more smoothly than coding when you have a large number of people.