Comment by lifeisstillgood | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lifeisstillgood | Hacker News Reader

lifeisstillgood

I (believe/know/research support?) that the most effective team setup is one well defined team in one single physical location, with a clear mandate (and no "management" to duck it up).

Think team of great creative people working in same office, with door shut.

This works for any team no matter the skill level (ie if you have so-so developers, they will perform best in these circumstances even if better developers exist.)

And every step away from this a company takes the company is explicitly accepting its reduction in performance.

Have people spread over different desks in same office. meh

Have people spread over different offices and time zones?

Have no clear mandate? Confusing requirements ? constantly changing roster of management needing different items ?

In the end management has just one lever (like central banks) - how they org wise their people. It's not a hard job but to justify their own wages they have to keep fiddling. And it costs everyone

This breaks down if you have teams in more than one location which have to interact. So yes, for smaller companies, being together at one location and reaping the benefits of direct collaboration is a thing, for international companies less so.

Then there is the problem, if you do put everyone in the same room, that can be distracting too. A lot of software development requires quite time for concentration. Yes, having direct access to your team members is great, but not all the time.

>>> This breaks down if you have teams in more than one location which have to interact.

for seperate distinct teams that's fine. See conways law. but often the people are in same team across different locations - meaning their interaction is just kaput

I agree, but I personally also need a couple of WFH days each week so I can be completely without distraction for tasks that require deep thought. My concentration is broken easily and I find other people talking across desks to each other or walking around in the office area distracting. When I'm WFH they simply can't distract me, as my notifications are switched off and I'm alone.

Yeah I think there is a rough rule of thumb like "two pizza teams, that literally have pizza lunch together twice a week" for me makes the various issues coalesce - same people same team same location, often enough to eat together, plus eating together has big binding benefits for teams etc etc

Anecdotally, the most productive teams I worked with were in a remote setup, but with a style of management that was present only to help define medium term goals, not really concerned with day-to-day activities.

Not saying my personal experience is the best example, but is well, the best I experienced.

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