Mongol hordes

[Herb Chong [DCS]]

In article <766 at ecsvax.UUCP> dgary at ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady) writes:
>It seems the
>Mongol Hordes operated as relatively small, fast, expert bands.
>Destructive they were, but they were very efficient at it and were
>almost always outnumbered by the opposition.  (If you think about it,
>it's relatively unlikely that nomadic invaders would outnumber an
>indigenous population.)
>
>So maybe the REAL Mongol Horde approach might well be imitated by
>programming groups.  (Or at least by headhunters in net.jobs :-)
>-- 
>D Gary Grady

curious.  this is exactly the approach (small, expert programming
teams) espoused by what's his name in ``The Mythical Man Month''.  for
many typical projects, this is probably the best approach, but too
often it's the most junior programmers that do the most programming and
they don' always know what they're doing.  as another aside, gerald
weinbaum's book ``The Psychology of Computer Programming'' sort of
nibbles at this issue without really saying whether he thinks small
teams are better than massive programming efforts or not.  for those
who haven't read either of these books, i suggest that you make an
effort to find them and have a look.

Herb Chong...

I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble....

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