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The magic of small engineering teams

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Re: The magic of small engineering teams

#31

Post by vbezhenar »

goosejuice wrote: post #25
al_borland wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of stuff drives me nuts. I just spent 8 months fighting to get $150 for something. This should have just been taken out of some petty cash fund, but instead I wasted a ton of my time, and others, fighting to get it from the proper source. This cost the organization thousands of dollars in lost time.

I think this is all too common due to a small few who take advantage which leads to the construction of barriers to prevent abuse. This isn't limited to large orgs -- it's everywhere in society. I suspect accountability without authority might not be as accurate as one might seem when there exists middle management. You might be accountable but your boss probably is more so, thus the reluctance in giving full autonom…

If barriers harm more than abuse then abuse should be accepted.

Re: The magic of small engineering teams

#32

Post by mathgeek »

goosejuice wrote: post #24

but it has worked best for our company with these rules Sharing is good, but as others have pointed out, folks publishing such things could use a bit more intellectual humility. At this point perhaps authors just expect others read it as opinionated anecdotes. Typical thought leader dogma aside, using pizza as a metaphor for team size has always been silly to meaningless.

> Typical thought leader dogma aside, using pizza as a metaphor for team size has always been silly to meaningless.

An easy way to see it fall apart is to imagine a team that each eats 3-4 slices of pizza, or a team that only eats one slice each.

Re: The magic of small engineering teams

#34

Post by crtified »

psim1 wrote: post #2

Counterpoint: Being on a small team in a large organization sucks. In a large org, small teams have no weight. Actually, we have wait - we have to wait for everything: devops resources, marketing resources, even infosec resources. We are too small to notice, not important enough to get quick attention (never mind that our small team's product is profitable).

This reminds me of a situation which I'll label "satellite office syndrome" - which is where a company has a large/dominant Head Office, and smaller regional offices which are in a permanent state of playing second-fiddle in terms of funding, attention, respect and company culture.

Re: The magic of small engineering teams

#35

Post by getcrunk »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #26
BurningFrog wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I only work at small startups. There are tradeoffs, but I'll never go back to big organizations.

Same. I quit Google to go work at a 4 person company. I love that we’re just able to get stuff done. Hard to get GPUs? Walk down to Central Computers in SOMA and buy L40S cards and build a workstation for everyone to share. I’m not very financially motivated. I’m already making more than 90+% of the US. I just can not fathom the level of greed I saw hiding behind people’s eyes at Google as they try to build empires.…

How many number of hours is chill? 4? 6? 3?

Re: The magic of small engineering teams

#36

Post by verve_rat »

mathgeek wrote: post #32
goosejuice wrote: post #24

but it has worked best for our company with these rules Sharing is good, but as others have pointed out, folks publishing such things could use a bit more intellectual humility. At this point perhaps authors just expect others read it as opinionated anecdotes. Typical thought leader dogma aside, using pizza as a metaphor for team size has always been silly to meaningless.

> Typical thought leader dogma aside, using pizza as a metaphor for team size has always been silly to meaningless. An easy way to see it fall apart is to imagine a team that each eats 3-4 slices of pizza, or a team that only eats one slice each.

Yup, in NZ a two pizza team would average out to about three people I think.

Are US pizzas giant?

Re: The magic of small engineering teams

#37

Post by paulryanrogers »

whoknowsidont wrote: post #14

Corporations are mostly just job programs. Most companies do not actually need anywhere near the number of people they have employed to function. The reasons why small teams work is because the number of communication channels go down, and you spend less time simply talking about the work and actually doing the work.

Or perhaps corporations grow large because they serve diverse needs. Much like users only need 10% of Microsoft Word, yet many cohorts often need a different 10% slice.

Or we lack anti-trust controls, so rent seekers are soaking up markets.

Maybe a combination of all three.

Re: The magic of small engineering teams

#39

Post by kortilla »

whoknowsidont wrote: post #14

Corporations are mostly just job programs. Most companies do not actually need anywhere near the number of people they have employed to function. The reasons why small teams work is because the number of communication channels go down, and you spend less time simply talking about the work and actually doing the work.

This is not true. If the people weren’t providing some positive ROI then the execs would be drooling over the money saved from cutting them.

Re: The magic of small engineering teams

#40

Post by rqtwteye »

kortilla wrote: post #39
whoknowsidont wrote: post #14

Corporations are mostly just job programs. Most companies do not actually need anywhere near the number of people they have employed to function. The reasons why small teams work is because the number of communication channels go down, and you spend less time simply talking about the work and actually doing the work.

This is not true. If the people weren’t providing some positive ROI then the execs would be drooling over the money saved from cutting them.

I don’t think so. Unless you get super high up, your pay increases proportionally to people under you. The next problem is that once you start cutting, you actually have to organize and manage. That’s way more difficult than saying “ I have hired x people”. I have been in countless discussions where management offered more people but whenever I told them the real problem is the process or another department not doing their job, I got silence.
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