Does size matter?

What is better for a project: a small team or a big one? There are pros and cons for both.

For a small team:

• Pros:
• High exposure of team members to several methodologies, tools, tasks, resulting in a rapid increase of experience
• Not a complex task management required, project tracking is more accurate and easy to manage
• Work with a bigger variety of people can bring some benefit in developing communication skills
• Cons:
• Difficult ramp-up: Always there is an extra-time needed to understand the required methodology, tools availability, what could be reused. The deadlines for such shorter projects are usually very strict and may be more difficult to fulfill the initial learning
• High mental cost as people need to adapt to work environment very fast
• Despite the fact that small projects may not involve high complexity, they have a short development and verification time and there is sometimes no room for task management, which can result in stressful deadlines
• Small visibility on overall project - tasks are usually punctual, well targeted, with limited understanding on how the entire system is working
• Difficult to integrate into client teams, establish close work connections, trust and confidence
• Difficult to manage vacations
• Changing often projects and teams can lead to people burnout
• Needs rather experienced people, which some times are hard to find
• Instability after project end

A big project can be:

• Long – a long period of time working in the same project, usually covering many releases
• Complex – larger team working on the same project. In this case, higher level of experience is required inside the team; the interactions between team members and client are more frequent. The management of such a project is more complex, but offers more space for tasks planning and people management in order to avoid stressful deadlines.

For a big team:

• Pros:
• It's easier to place juniors on side tasks
• Sharing knowledge is easier (you can consult with more members and share the knowledge)
• It creates necessary conditions for specializing on a specific domain
• More training can be planned and followed within the project
• Cons:
• Team members may become bored from doing the same repetitive task for a long time
• If not properly planned and tracked, projects are easier to slip, due high complexity and far deadlines
• Communication is more difficult

Irrespective of the project, without specific managerial skills and proper planning and tracking, as big as team is, the individual output and quality are decreasing and average costs (per active team member) is increasing.

So, what is you preference?