Works up to about...
...3-6 people, IF they are all working on the same or similar tasks.
\r\n\r\nIt's more-or-less "XP" (extreme programming).
\r\n\r\nTwo work arrangements that were among the worst for me:
\r\n\r\n20+ people in one room the majority with 1/2 hight walls (OpenSales). Comprising about 3-4 work teams (documentation, development, QA, and marketing, depending on assignments). Lots of conflicting noise going around. For which the solution was "play music through headphones" (for me, cancelling noise with more noise doesn't work).
\r\n\r\nThe other: 4 of us in an "open floorplan" office, with overheight cube walls (8'), arranged as a cross: '+'. Thing is, the four of us worked on the same stuff. So the only way we could collaborate was to get out of our own office, walk partway around the cross, and talk to one other person. Couldn't talk with 3+ people w/o pulling 2+ out of their offices. At the same time, we were wide open to all the noise and distraction of the rest of the office. Effectively: we were prevented from working with the people we most neede to work with, and were distracted by everyone else.
\r\n\r\nIronic bit about that last arrangement: the prior configuration was three of us in one office, desks to the walls. That was actually pretty good: we were all working on the same stuff, could ask one another quick questions as needed, and weren't distracted by anyone else.
\r\n\r\nBest layout: an "open floorplan" office, but with 5' high cubes. Overall acustics were pretty quiet. Offices were arranged into "pods" of four desks. Sort of like:
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n+------------+--------+\r\n| | . |\r\n|............| . |\r\n| | . |\r\n| | . |\r\n+-------+ + . |\r\n . |\r\n ------+\r\n . |\r\n+-------+ + . |\r\n| | . |\r\n| | . |\r\n|............| . |\r\n| | . |\r\n+------------+--------+\r\n\r\n
Best part: we're largely isolated from other pods, can have impromptu conferences in the "hall", and still get a reasonable amount of privacy in our own office. Dimensions were, IIRC, 6'x8'.
