I’ve read a book summary of “The Mythical Man-Month”, and I wanted to share some key points which I observed.

I’ve found that adding more people to a late software project is often seen as a way to speed up project completion. However, in practice, it may cause the project to be even later than before.

This is due to the time required to learn the project’s existing codebase and communication channels, as well as the possibility of adding complexity and coordination overhead.

Let’s assume new team members join a project, they need time to learn about the codebase, architecture, and design patterns, depending on the project’s complexity, this learning process can take several weeks or even months.

During this time, existing team members may need to spend extra time explaining the project to the new members, which can result in a productivity slowdown.

Furthermore, as new team members join the project, they may add complexity to the codebase, especially if they have a different coding style or approach.

This may make it more difficult for existing team members to understand and maintain the codebase, resulting in additional delays.