Teamwork and Software Development

Robert Lutz discusses the disadvantages of teamwork in his book "Guts."

While he acknowledges that good teams are a wonderful asset to a company, he warns us about the disadvantages of teamwork -

• Teams tend to play it safe.
• Teams discourage some of the creative ideas that have the potential to lead to breakthroughs.
• Teams don't launch products that turn a company or an industry around.
• Teams often spend too much time on non-productive work, and too little time on real work.

Small independent software vendors (micro-iSVs) shouldn't avoid working in teams. But don't think that teams are the solution to all of your software development problems.