It looks obvious

Many years ago, when I was young officer, a commander of mine thought me one of the most important lessons. He explained to me that you can determine officer quality by testing the quality of the officers he chooses to work with. Good officers always choose to work with good officers.

Many years past and now, across the ocean and in completely different career, I’m hearing new theories. Idealizing the immediate return on investment, the new trend of off shoring development centers to chip, although not as talented, preaching for the saving that allow greater margin in development.

Therefore I was very happy to read Tom Evslin’s post: “Why a Great Programmer is Worth Fifty Good Ones ”. In this post Evslin argues that although talented developer cost more upfront, in terms of salary, it will eventually cost less.

If one person can do a whole project, there is a whole layer of complexity, documented interfaces, and misunderstandings that is eliminated compared to having two or more people working on the project.  Meetings don’t have to happen; schedules don’t have to be synched; joint-testing and finger pointing over faults doesn’t happen.  No personality conflicts, either.  The actual amount of work required to do the project is much less when it is being done by one person.  Also management time is reduced.

But, as Evslin mentions, the advantage isn’t only in the total expense but in having the work done and in competitive advantage.

But there is more to the productivity gap than just avoiding multiperson projects, as important as that avoidance is.  A great programmer, working alone, is usually orders of magnitude faster than a good programmer also working alone.

When building a project I would always look for the challenge managing superstars. It is more demanding for the manager, it is hard to keep up and to live up to their talents. But the results, when done right, are wonderful