Building broad architectures with a small team

[thorisson]

As we have been working on the SuperRadioHost architecture (30+ modules) with only 3 people working on implementation we have realized that it can be difficult to build a broad architecture when all modules are not worked on at the same time. Because the breadth-first approach requires us to build, for each version of the system, some of the modules serially, it becomes harder to build each version than if we had e.g. 10 people who were in charge of 3 modules each. Ideally, it seems, one would want to match the size of the team to the size of the architecture in such a way that all modules for each version are ready at roughly the same time. Although doing pseudomodules and module stubbs clearly is clearly a solution to this problem, it is is only a partial approximation to the ideal.

[Hrafn Thorri]

Seeing how many will indeed find that they are short on manpower — perhaps it would not be such a bad idea to at least start planning an open-source development suite to aid in the development of broad, modular architectures. Such a suite could for example consist of easily modifiable pseudomodules to simulate unfinished modules, or GUI controls for sending messages manually (PsyProbe is great, but perhaps limited for these purposes). Even though some problems can only be solved "the right way" (by increasing the number of team members), I'm sure there are several problems that all small teams encounter which could easily be tackled given the right set of tools.

[thorisson]

Hey Hrafn. That is a very good idea. Do you have any thoughts on what that suite would do for you, how it would be organized and what new features would be needed?