Software Architect's Handbook

Adding resources

Another common way organizations may try to get a project back on schedule is to add more resources. However, this approach doesn't necessarily allow a project to be completed faster, and it may cause the project to take even longer. Brooks' Law, from The Mythical Man-Month, states that ...adding human resources to a late software project makes it later.

As you add more people to a project, the communication paths increase in a multiplicative way. In addition to taking more time to communicate, many more opportunities for miscommunication are created. Productivity and the number of defects (both in requirements as well as design and implementation) are known to increase as projects get larger.

If the team is going to add ...