web-development, web-appsI am currently trying to build a team to work on a social networking app. Currently there is one person working on the backend using Ruby on Rails and Heroku and one person working on an iPhone app. Both have full-time jobs, so I would like to get more people to work on the app so that it is usable sooner. I am afraid that if I get too many people involved in this project, there will be too much confusion.
For those who have experience developing apps, what is a good number of developers to work on an app? And how many is too many? I’ve looked for this question before, but every question seems to ask what the minimum number of developers is, not the maximum.
Five is a safe maximum. A few people can handle up to eight, but that takes a special manager and is not recommended. After that, you are going to have to introduce a layer of management and segment the project with clearly defined API’s between the areas of functionality.
That is not a technical limitation, by the way. It is a human limitation, and is a part of every business (and all other types of human organizations). Militaries and factories seem to exceed this limit, but only because they have very clear role definitions. Each person becomes an independent unit with an API defining their interactions.
I would also echo conner, you should check with your existing developers to see how many and what type of people would help them be more productive. They might need a designer, seo, dba, sysadmin, js, backend, frontend. If you have the budget, get them the resources they really need not just a few more heads.
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.