Re: work times & accommodation @tokyo, WAS: Re: [tlug] Embedded linux dev wanting to find work in Tokyo.. Seeking advice.

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Curt Sampson writes:
 > On 2008-07-29 18:11 +0900 (Tue), Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
 > 
 > > Curt Sampson writes:
 > > 
 > >  > More seriously, what's the purpose of this requirement that I
 > >  > double the team?
 > > 
 > > It's not a requirement, it's the estimate of the leader of that team.
 > 
 > We're now back to my argument that there are other methods of scaling
 > programming productivity than just adding developers, and team leaders
 > should be looking at these.

First, *productivity* is a per-resource-unit measure and by definition
can't be scaled.  "Scaling" is what happens when you add more
resources in proportion to current usage.  "Scales well" means that
you get output at least in proportion to additional input.

Second, you seem to be back to that argument, but what I'm saying is
that the team leader has *already* done the best she can to improve
the current team's productivity, but has been asked to perform a task
that is too big for it.  Now they have to scale.  Scaling programming
output by definition requires more developers, and has proven to be
extremely difficult.

Given that, I'm not surprised that large shops show significantly
lower productivity than small ones, and that managers in large shops
tend to be conservative about adopting new tools of unproven worth.
It is not clear to me that Google is adopting a suboptimal strategy.