A small team consists of 10 developers. Any projects that are non-trivial will need more manpower than a small team. However many people can actually get in the way during the design phase. You need an architect to be in charge or the design. Otherwise you will get a design that lacks unity.It would be optimal to hire a large team of programmers after the design is done. This is the way construction jobs work. However it is not always feasible to ramp up developers quickly during the implementation phase.
Since we are speaking about design, here is a worthwhile quote. "The second system is the most dangerous one ever designed." That is because the designer will have the tendency to over design everything. This is detrimental. A good designer must learn to leave out a lot of good ideas that just don't fit into the solution.
Next time I will discuss writing and programmer productivity. We still have a lot to cover before fully understanding the Mythical Man Month.
