The use of large numbers of loosely coupled programmers in an attempt
to wedge a great many features into a product in a short time. Though
there have been memorable gang bangs (e.g., that over-the-weekend
assembler port mentioned in Steven Levy's Hackers), and large numbers
of loosely-coupled programmers operating in {bazaar} mode can do very
useful work when they're not on a deadline, most are perpetrated by
large companies trying to meet unrealistic deadlines; the inevitable
result is enormous buggy masses of code entirely lacking in
{orthogonal}ity. When market-driven managers make a list of all the
features the competition has and assign one programmer to implement
each, the probability of maintaining a coherent (or even functional)
design goes to {epsilon}. See also {firefighting}, {Mongolian Hordes
technique}, {Conway's Law}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {firefighting}{Mongolian Hordes technique}]