Core dev not distibuted for small teams!

[gameon]

Hi, I work in a small team.

2 html guy 1 UK, 1 US
1 flash/cold fusion guy uk
2 cold fusion / db 1 UK, 1 US

We are replacing one of the coldfusion guys. Management want the other cfm person to be in the states to balance things out.

I think that is a terrible idea.

html yes, but there are only two lead developers, most of the time the 3 cfm people brainstorm, then the 2 lead discus, argue and implement together.

Separating these two guy for no reason other than balance is madness. I have tried to strategise and code argue with people 2000 miles and 5 hours difference away. It can be done, but my is it far less efficient.

You can talk about code by the coffee cooler, but having a video conference every 10 seconds...

Like I said, simple stuff yes. But when the team is so small - leaving 1 lead dev in one country and the only other in another country is crazy. Maybe a team in each country, but at this size - no!

Please can you let me know how you feel and your experiences to either disproove or support my argument.

Help!

M@)

[96turnerri]

ok this is what you have
2 html guy 1 UK, 1 US
1 flash/cold fusion guy uk
2 cold fusion / db 1 UK, 1 US

some when one of the cfm guys leaves you will have

UK,US,UK,UK,XX or UK,US,UK,XX,US

XX is the missing man ;)

to 'balance' the first you need a states guy
to 'balance' the secomd it doesnt matter

which one is it btw, i think i understand what you are saying, why does it have to be balanced, it helps trust, just think if we took the top coders from this site put us all together with all our different skills, there would be nothing we couldnt do and we would have a huge market due to the spread of us

ok ok dream over lets get real :)

[gameon]

At the mo, the us guy is just doing html and using the sys built in the UK by the 3 cfm guys...

We have meetings as we walk to launch, at the water cooler, or just stand up and check a point.

Moving 1 of us to the states for no clear reason other than one person is beeing replaced - will result in us losing far more than we will gain.

Maybe if there were 3 developers in the UK and three in the US - but 1 in each (for no reason) - why...

M@)

[Nevermore]

I don't think even very large increases in trust will be useful if work quality is reduced by the difficulty of communication; I think it's all up to how good the methods of communication are. If a 24/7 video link was set up, no problem, but that's unlikely.

[96turnerri]

with two or three people i think it would run best, designer with simple scripting knowledge and one/two scripters with partial skills in design

That would be the best team IMO

[ray326]

I think the technical communications issues are far less disruptive than the time differential.