The Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the motto “Less is more” to describe his aesthetic tactic of arranging the numerous necessary components of a building to create an impression of extreme simplicity. But it was designer Buckminster Fuller who adopted the engineer’s goal of “Doing more with less”, his concerns were oriented towards technology and engineering rather than aesthetics….this view fits in perfectly into the current development state of most IT projects. No surprise then why “Less is More” was this years theme at the Web 2.0 Expo New York City.
Recently this whole notion that we can produce more with less has become more and more apparent, at least in my personal observations. I’ve certainly noticed most development teams in the Internet sector are more effective in smaller teams (< or = 5) rather then bloated groups. They produce more functions, require less guidance and management, provide deeper feedback, ask less questions and generally and simply adopt to the changing environment conditions. WHY? … it simply comes down to a mixture of autonomy, ownership, freedom, deeper domain knowledge & less management overhead.