Brooks's law is a principle in software development which says that "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later".[1] It was coined by Fred Brooks in his 1975 book The Mythical Man-Month. The corollary of Brooks's Law is that there is an incremental person who, when added to a project, makes it take more, not less time. Brooks adds that "Nine women can't make a baby in one month".
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if you’re approaching a critical deadline... and the system is pure failure... adding more people can work. I say this with decades of experience
the trick is to identify and remove the failing pieces as you add new ones thru a strict filter to insure capability
I’ve been brought into many projects and turned certain failure into stunning success in short order.
Depends on your objective.
Up against the genetic wall, are you? If you just need nine babies in nine months to shake a stick at, then nine women will, on the average, get it done. Over-provisioning will not hurt, obviously. Time to go embarrassingly parallel!
Nine men, one man, just a question of exertion! Given such a schedule, one ought to do it. Just take his time over a week or so. It won't fall off.
OMG...That is one I should have read. They always used man-month in costing those jobs. That and costing LOC (lines of code).
Apparently some of my colleagues did read it. Thank you for identifying the source!