Big Teams are Big Trouble
Your boss comes as well as gives you a (big fat) sizable undertaking. We all jog into situations where you have to meet a deadline that does not permit you to accomplish the project with small project teams. So the first instinct is to add manpower to the project as well as increase the size of the project team to reduce the time it shall take to complete the project. This is a very dangerous assumption as well as is a faulty one. I am not going to go into all of the details, but I shall manufacture a reference to the ‘Mythical Man Month’ which was presented by Frederick P. Brooks Jr. a long time ago. Basically the concept of the man month argument is that men (project members) as well as months (time) are interchangeable. Frederick P. Brooks Jr. explains that this is not indeed true. In fact adding men (project members) shall an estimated at all times increase the months (time) it takes to complete a project.
The greater the size of the team the more intercommunication required, the more partitioning of work as well as delegation of tasks, as well as the harder it is to determine performance as well as status of the project.
So what do you do if it’s a large project? The worst way to approach it is to take that it is a large project as well as as such shall require a large team as well as so you just manufacture the large sufficient that the time should be decreased. This is referred to as the brute force approach where you shovel resources into the project in order to endeavour as well as decrease the total time it shall take to accomplish it. This at all times results in greater cost, more issues, as well as all sorts of concerns when it comes to upgrading as well as building upon the solution.
The simple answer or solution is that there should never be such a thing as a large project. That if the analysts, architects, as well as those who create the concepts of how the solution, or system shall function do their employment opportunities correctly the result shall be either numerous small projects, or it shall be broken down sufficient that separating aspects of the solution into individual projects should be possible. The truth is that difficult if not not possible deadlines at all times happen as well as that real world scenarios are rarely so simple.
For these special circumstances you create a manageable project team. That is a project team that is well within your abilities as well as that of your project management personnel to manage effectively. This team shall be your powerhouse that shall do an estimated all of the work. To decrease the total time it takes to complete the project you add more resources. However, when you add these additional resources you manufacture them supporting resources. They are additional satellite groups that provide support as well as assistance to the core project team.
This is not a new concept, Harlan Mills proposed it a long time ago, as well as I just think it’s at all times good to point it out from time to time. Harlan said that the an estimated all effective team on behalf of accomplishing large projects is one that is designed similarly to a surgeon’s team. Just scale his model out, as well as I trust it shall result in the least costly as well as best end solution being completed. (This is my interpretation of his model, not his model word on behalf of word.)

 The Surgeon

The surgeon is the one who does an estimated all of the work; they have the education, training, as well as skills to do the best job, with the least amount of waste.
 Co-Surgeon

The co-surgeon thinks as well as evaluates the surgeons work. While often as skilled as the surgeon they often have less experience.
 Administrator

The administrator takes care of people, relationships, money as well as of course the necessary components. It’s the administrator’s job to ensure that the resources such as office space, staff, or objects that are required are provided as well as that everyone’s administrative needs are met.
 Editor

The editor takes care of documentation. While often the actual procedures, as well as work is completed by the surgeon, as well as much of the documentations important technical references are done by the surgeon the work of organizing that material as well as preparing it on behalf of others to read as well as understand.
 Program Clerk

The program clerk maintains records of the work completed, keeps up to date knowledge of the current status of the work being done as well as the technical properties of that work so that it can be interpreted as well as reused by both machinery as well as humans.
 Secretary

The secretary handles all project correspondence as well as primarily supports the administrator, editor as well as helps to co-ordinate communication on behalf of the support personnel.
 Toolsmith

The Toolsmith creates, maintains as well as upgrades the tools the surgeons shall use. The toolsmith does not require to be directly included in the process of the ‘surgery’ but shall be aware of the needs of the surgeon. Once the Toolsmith has defined a surgeon’s require they either find an existing tool on behalf of the surgeon that shall satisfy the surgeons need, or create one on behalf of the surgeon. In a programming sense think of the Toolsmith as the person who creates the utilities that are made available to the Surgeon, but note that these utilities are more or less defined by the surgeon as well as his/her needs.
 Tester

The tester prepares test cases on behalf of the system as a whole (based off the functional specifications) as well as the day to day tests required on behalf of component testing as well as debugging.
 Language Lawyer

The language lawyer is your research staff. The individual who shall optimize the work being done by find a neat as well as efficient way to do difficult, obscure, or tricky things. If there's a require he shall also act as the individual who shall find the relevant material as well as information to help improve a decision or aspect of the surgeons work.

While this concept was created to handle the management of information technology projects I trust it is universally applicable to all kinds of projects. The advantage of this system is that the surgeon (and often co-surgeon) require to understand the ‘surgery’ they shall be doing, as well as why, or the project tasks as well as overall direction. But the support personnel should not require to know all of the particulars resulting in a much greater conceptual integrity. (Limit the number of people who require to be responsible.)
So the secret to managing big projects that require (due to time constraints) a larger team is to utilize the surgeon approach as much as possible. That way you can retain your projects as healthy as well as happy as possible.
Hope this helps,

Richard Harbridge