The system dynamics of Brooks’ Law in team production

When a project is behind schedule, managers usually respond by bringing in additional workforce. Brooks’ Law points out the systemic limits to staffing intervention, which are related to dynamic relationships between team buildup and loss of production due to communication and training overheads. ProjScout™, a theoretical model of Brooks’ Law, responds logically when input parameters are assigned extreme values and coherently sensitive to stepwise changes of input. Simulation experiments revealed relative inherent limits of staffing intervention, related to dynamic relationships between initial team size, training new team members, their learning curve, and productive time lost due to intercommunication. As a rule of thumb, Brooks’ Law applies only when project resources are limited. The actual effect of investment in training, as well as concluding whether Brooks’ Law applies in a particular case, can be modeled only when actual values of the productivity, communication entropy, and actual learning curve are known. ProjScout™ can facilitate project decision-making in a wide range of production and service industries – wherever experienced performers have to divide their work time between production and other activities. </jats:p