Brooks’ Law | Bigger Teams, Bigger Problems?

When a project falls behind schedule, the knee-jerk reaction is often to add more people to the team. But does this actually help? According to Brooks’ Law, the answer is a resounding no. In fact, it might make things worse.

📉 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬’ 𝐋𝐚𝐰 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐍𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥
“Adding manpower to a late project makes it later.”
More people = more complexity, not more progress.

💡 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐁𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞
● 𝐑𝐚𝐦𝐩-𝐔𝐩 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: New team members need time to get up to speed, pulling focus and resources away from the project.
● 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝: More people mean more meetings, emails, and misaligned priorities. Coordination becomes a bottleneck.
● 𝐃𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬: Not all tasks can be easily divided, and adding more hands can lead to duplicated efforts or confusion.

🔑 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬
● 𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫, 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬: Focus on quality over quantity. A smaller, highly skilled team can often outperform a larger, less cohesive one.
● 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Use tools and processes that minimize friction and keep everyone aligned.
● 𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬: Instead of adding people, identify and fix the underlying issues causing delays.
● 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬: Avoid overpromising and set achievable goals from the start.

🌟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲: More people ≠ More productivity. The right team size matters!