Someone has quoted a statistic out of context. A single
statistic such as this is the best versus the worst
individual on a given day with a given technology
assignment, etc.. That's like hiring someone straight
out of college and having them compete against Don Box
on a COM project. Yeah, there would be a 28-1
difference, but that is a shortcoming of the
organization and not the individuals. And a factor of 28
is HUGE.
Other facts that are similar (and more applicable) are:
- Best people in general outperform the worst people in
general 10:1. Hopefully your organization does not
employ the "worst" group, so your
statistic might be lower.
- The Best performer is about 2.5 times as productive as
a median performer (median is the point at which 50% of
the number of developers are above, and 50% are below).
- The 50% that are above the median are 2:1 as
productive as the 50% below the median.
[From DeMarco and Lister's Peopleware, p.45]
The last statistic is the most important since almost
all significant projects require teams to finish in any
reasonable amount of time. But still, there are no tools
or other "silver bullets" out there
that will as easily double the productivity of your
organization. This is one of the primary reasons why
PEOPLE are consistently one of the most important
contributors to project success in the Standish Group's
CHAOS report.
I have seen another statistic from one of my Software
Eng textbooks - 20% of team carries 80% of the effort
required.. (called the 'Pareto Principal').. The trick
is to keep the 20% in tune & happy..