Adding people to a late software project can make it later because onboarding and communication overhead can outweigh added capacity.

Format Book / Offline paper

Location PART 1 - TONS OF PUNKS, ONE BIG JERK CHAPTER 3: TOUCHGRASS Fast, Cheap, and Barely Working

"Adding people to a late software project can make it later because onboarding and communication overhead can outweigh added capacity."

Brooks's law specifically concerns adding manpower to late software projects and does not imply that additional staff can never help under other conditions.

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Source title Mythical Man-Month, The: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition, 2nd edition

Source authors Frederick P. Brooks

Source year 1995

Confidence high

Importance high