Diminishing Returns on Additional Developers

Posted by smp7d on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by smp7d
Published on 2012-10-29T13:59:59Z Indexed on 2012/10/29 17:21 UTC
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project-management

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terminology

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brookslaw

Is there a term to describe the point at which adding more developers to a software project will provide diminishing returns?

I realize that at a high level, it is more complicated that just a number of developers at which the project will be at productive capacity (ex/ state of the project, quality of the added developer), but I am trying to come up with a way to relate this to non-technical management through repetition. I'm basically looking for a term which invokes a strong image like "terminal velocity", except for Brook's Law.

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