Open Source Software Development
While open source projects rarely have schedules, nonetheless they can reach a state in which they are called "late" by their sponsors, participants, and users. In such a case, Brooks's law ("adding manpower to a late software project makes it later") surely applies, for exactly the reasons that Brooks enumerates: time for the new developers to become productive and increased communication overhead. In addition, unless there are strict controls, newcomers may reduce the productivity of experienced developers by checking in buggy or inappropriate changes, which then have to be backed out.
Read more about this topic: Brooks's Law
Famous quotes containing the words open, source and/or development:
“... for the poor the whole world is a self-constituted critic; your smallest action is open to debate.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall, U.S. businesswoman. (1867-1945)
“To not know would be a source of pain.”
—Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)
“Ultimately, it is the receiving of the child and hearing what he or she has to say that develops the child’s mind and personhood.... Parents who enter into a dialogue with their children, who draw out and respect their opinions, are more likely to have children whose intellectual and ethical development proceeds rapidly and surely.”
—Mary Field Belenky (20th century)