Sizing engineering teams.

Will Larson · 14 Jul 2018

A change of mind in this piece

Innovation should happen inside the existing teams rather than in a fresh team spun up for it, because a separate innovation team creates a two-tier class system.

Recalls holdingI’ve historically done this myself, but I’ve moved towards innovating within existing teams.

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5 korrents from this piece · 1 of them a turn ↓

Will Larson did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
An engineering manager should support six to eight engineers: fewer and they drift into being a tech lead, more and they can only be a coach.

Their wordsManagers should support 6-8 engineers. This gives them enough time for active coaching, coordinating and furthering their team’s mission by writing strategies, leading change, and so on.
Our reading
A sustainable on-call rotation needs seven or eight engineers.

Their wordsOncall rotations want 8 engineers. For production oncall responsibilities, I’ve found that two-tier 24/7 support requires eight folks.
Our reading
A group of fewer than four people is not a team: it behaves like a set of individuals, and a single departure knocks it back into maintenance.

Their wordsSmall teams (<4) are not teams. I’ve sponsored quite a few 1-2 person teams, and each time I’ve regretted it. To repeat: I have regretted it every single time.
Our reading
Innovation should happen inside the existing teams rather than in a fresh team spun up for it, because a separate innovation team creates a two-tier class system.

Recalls holdingI’ve historically done this myself, but I’ve moved towards innovating within existing teams.

Their words nowThis requires very deliberate decision making and some bravery, but in exchange you’ll get higher morale, a culture of learning, and avoid creating a two-tiered class system of innovators and maintainers.
Our reading
New teams should be budded off an existing team grown deliberately large, never created empty and staffed afterwards.

Their wordsTo create a new team, grow an existing team to eight to ten, and then bud into two teams of four or five. Never create empty teams.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.