project management - I need this baby in a month - send me nine women! -

under circumstances - if - adding programmers team speed development of late project?

the exact circumstances specific project ( e.g. development team, management style, process maturity, difficulty of subject matter, etc.). in order scope bit better can speak in sweeping oversimplifications, i'm going restate question:

under circumstances, if any, can adding team members software development project running late result in reduction in actual ship date level of quality equal if existing team allow work until completion?

there number of things think necessary, not sufficient, occur (in no particular order):

• the proposed individuals added project must have:
  • at least reasonable understanding of problem domain of project
  • be proficient in language of project , specific technologies use tasks given
  • their proficiency must /not/ less or greater weakest or strongest existing member respectively. weak members drain existing staff tertiary problems while new person strong disrupt team how have done , doing wrong.
  • have communication skills
  • be highly motivated (e.g. able work independently without prodding)
• the existing team members must have:
  • excellent communication skills
  • excellent time management skills
• the project lead/management must have:
  • good prioritization , resource allocation abilities
  • a high level of respect existing team members
  • excellent communication skills
• the project must have:
  • a good, completed, , documented software design specification
  • good documentation of things implemented
  • a modular design allow clear chunks of responsibility carved out
  • sufficient automated processes quality assurance required defect level these might include such things as: unit tests, regression tests, automated build deployments, etc.)
  • a bug/feature tracking system in-place , in-use team (e.g. trac, sourceforge, fogbugz, etc).

one of first things should discussed whether ship date can slipped, whether features can cut, , if combinations of 2 allow satisfy release existing staff. many times couple features hogging resources of team won't deliver value equal investment. give project's priorities serious review before else.

if outcome of above paragraph isn't sufficient, visit list above. if caught schedule slip early, addition of right team members @ right time may save release. unfortunately, closer expected ship date, more things can go wrong adding people. @ 1 point, you'll cross "point of no return" no amount of change (other shipping current development branch) can save release.

i go on , on think hit major points. outside of project , in terms of career, company's future success, etc. 1 of things should figure out why late, if have been done alert earlier, , measures need take prevent in future. late project occurs because either:

• were late before started (more stuff time) and/or
• slipped 1hr, 1day @ time.

hope helps!