Steve Jobs on Software Development as Complexity Management and "The Mythical Man-Month" at WWDC 1997
Summary:
Steve Jobs at WWDC 1997 explains that software development is fundamentally about managing complexity.
- He uses the analogy of "scaffolding" to illustrate how software complexity can grow to a point where the entire project "collapses of its own weight."
- This collapse is inevitable regardless of the size of the development team, even for large companies like Microsoft with hundreds of engineers.
- Jobs references "The Mythical Man-Month," a book by Fred Brooks, to highlight its core premise: adding more people to a software project that is already behind schedule tends to slow it down further.
- He explains that beyond a certain project size, the communication overhead required for new team members outweighs their actual contribution, leading to decreased efficiency and project delays.
- The key takeaway is that successful software development prioritizes managing complexity over merely increasing human resources.
Steve Jobs gesturing to illustrate software complexity [ 00:00:52 ]
Software Development as Managing Complexity [00:00:00]
Steve Jobs opens by stating that software development is primarily about managing complexity, a concept familiar to developers.
The "Scaffolding" Analogy [00:00:06]
- Jobs likens software development to building scaffolding: as you continue to build it higher and higher, it eventually collapses under its own weight.
- This collapse, representing project failure or unmanageability, occurs regardless of the number of people working on it, even for large teams of 300 to 500 individuals.
Steve Jobs demonstrating the collapse of software "scaffolding" due to excessive complexity. [ 00:00:13 ]
The "Mythical Man-Month" Principle [00:00:30]
- He references "The Mythical Man-Month," explaining its core premise regarding project size and team efficiency.
- Beyond a certain size, adding more people to a software project becomes counterproductive.
- The communication overhead required to integrate and coordinate a new person into the team becomes greater than their net contribution to the project itself.
- This increased communication burden slows down the project, leading to a "local maximum" where efficiency peaks before declining.
- The fundamental challenge remains managing complexity rather than simply throwing more resources at a problem.