Jim Winstead, one of our top developers, recently sent a link to an article by Bob Warfield "To build better software, you need fewer people." Jim's one of the unsung heroes of MySQL who works like crazy to eliminate bugs whether in the server, in our ODBC driver or lending a hand on various storage engines. But while he's a heads-down hard-working guy, he's also very thoughtful about what makes for good softwar Jim Winstead, one of our top developers, recently sent a link to an article by Bob Warfield “To build better software, you need fewer people.” Jim’s one of the unsung heroes of MySQL who works like crazy to eliminate bugs whether in the server, in our ODBC driver or lending a hand on various storage engines. But while he’s a heads-down hard-working guy, he’s also very thoughtful about what makes for good software development. So when he highlights an article, it’s always worth reading and figuring out how to apply some of the ideas at MySQL. In his blog, Bob Warfield points out some of his key findings about developer productivity: -Keep team size small -Make things modular so that you can keep teams focused -Invest in communications tools and infrastructure -Make sure there’s sufficient face time with in-person meetings -Focus on team chemistryAs it turns out, I know Bob from many years back at Borland. Bob was VP of Engineering for a time and ran the Quattro Pro team, among others. He’s started a new stealth mode company recently called Smoothspan and is blogging up a storm. If you’re at all interested in team productivity and how to get better results in software development, check out Bob’s blog. Also note the reference to an article in Dr Dobb’s Journal by Jim Coplien that described some of the findings and observations of the Quattro Pro for Windows team at Borland. As with most successful projects, it was a small team, but incredibly focused. Open Source