What do you get when you throw lots of programmers at a problem? You get lots of code! That’s what programmers do, duh. It does not matter how simple or complex the problem is. For any given size problem, more programmers will mean more code. That is more code to debug, more code to test, more to maintain. More, more, more. Eventually this will require even more programmers and the cycle continues until the project collapses.

And it is even worse if you only hire the best and brightest programmers (don’t we all!!). They write code faster! And it will be more complex than a dullard programmer because good programmers like to write general solutions.

Rich companies like Microsoft can keep this going for some time. However, you see the result in Vista and Office. Bloat, bloat, bloat.

What do you do if you have a problem that would take 12 months for 2 programmers but you want it done in 6. Hire 2 more programmers? Hire 4 more programmers? Big mistake! First off, it ain’t gonna happen in 6 months no matter what you do if it is really a 12 month problem. If you must cover your ass as a manager and claim you used all your resources to make it happen in 6 months, I suggest the following.

Put 2 of the best programmers you have on the project. Make sure they like each other and think alike about software design. They are the leads. Only the leads will write code that will go into production.

Use all your remaining dollars to hire programmers who will support the leads but NOT write production code unless it is a piece of boiler plate delegated to them by one of the leads. What these junior developers do is write and execute unit tests for the leads. They write test tools when appropriate. They participate in code reviews. They are not slaves but future leads in training. Or maybe they are not future leads in training. Maybe they are salves. That’s okay, mediocre programmer’s need to eat to.

Some bigger projects may need 4 leads or even 6. If you have more than that your project is DOA and you better convince someone to spilt it up. If they won’t, I’d find another place to work. That’s better than being canned or losing all you hair/sleep/health over a doomed project. And trust me, it is doomed.