Further notes on Team Composition

Optimal size of a team

Anywhere between 2-20 members depending on:

• the purpose for forming the team,
• the expectations you have of the team and its members,
• the roles that the team members need to play,
• the amount of cohesiveness and interconnectivity necessary for optimal team performance, and
• the function, activities, and goals of the team.

In software development (and other disciplines), the most common optimal size is 4-6 members.
When larger, the teams are likely to form sub-teams and working groups to accomplish the actual work of a project.

Can you think of a task that makes an optimal team size equal to 2, and other where the optimal size can be 20?

Personality traits

The Big Five personality traits include

• extraversion,
• conscientiousness,
• agreeableness,
• openness to experience,
• neuroticism (also referred to as emotional stability).