Cliff Berg shared the following article on LinkedIn. It’s a view that to be honest, I’m struggling with. Why? I guess first, because of the privilege that Cliff has as an influential and leading voice in the agile community. And second, because I’m not sure my experience (and opinion) aligns with his…
Here’s a snippet from the article—
Let’s make this very tangible: If I needed to assemble a team to build a product, and I had a choice between ten inexperienced but smart programmers or five very experienced and equally smart programmers, I would pick the team of five, hands down. I would not hesitate one second.
And even if I had a choice between ten inexperienced smart programmers or five highly experienced but slightly less smart programmers, I would still pick the latter.
Let me put it another way: If I had a choice between five inexperienced and smart programmers, or five experienced and smart programmers who cost twice as much, I would pick the latter. In fact, if those experienced programmers cost three times as much, I would still go with them. Five times as much? Yes - I would still go with them.
While Cliff is absolutely entitled and privileged to this perspective, I passionately disagree with it.