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Brooks' Law Revisited: Improving Software Productivity by Managing Complexity
Joseph Blackburn Vanderbilt University - Owen Graduate School of Management Michael A. Lapre Vanderbilt University - Owen Graduate School of Management Luk N. Van Wassenhove INSEAD May 2006 Abstract: According to Brooks' law for software development projects "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." Building on Brooks' law, we argue that complexity increases the maximum team size in software development projects (Hypothesis 1), and that maximum team size decreases software development productivity (Hypothesis 2). We test these hypotheses with a dataset of 117 software development projects conducted in Finland. Hypothesis 1 is supported for two out of three measures of complexity. We also find strong support for Hypothesis 2. In order to mitigate the negative impact of team size on productivity, managers should pay close attention to the logical complexity of software as well as the interfaces to other software.
Keywords: Project Management, Software Development, Software Productivity, Complexity, Project Team Size JEL Classifications: M10 Working Paper SeriesDate posted: August 08, 2006 ; Last revised: August 08, 2006Suggested CitationContact Information
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