“In one of their studies, Sackman, Erikson, and Grant were measuring performances of a group of experienced programmers. Within just this group, the ratios between best and worst performances averaged about 10:1 on productivity measurements and an amazing 5:1 on program speed and space measurements!” – The Mythical Man-Month
Yeah, the study by Sackman, Erikson, and Grant is exactly the study that originated the concept, and it's the first one listed in Steve McConnell's survey, which I link to in the post.
Yeah, but Brooks was the one who first popularised the idea. Mythical Man Month was published in 1975.
And of course he didn't just point to the study, he just used the study to back up what he and many others knew. He also proposed a solution to the problem, the "surgical team", to get out of the idiotic situation of promoting the best programmers to no longer do programming.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
“In one of their studies, Sackman, Erikson, and Grant were measuring performances of a group of experienced programmers. Within just this group, the ratios between best and worst performances averaged about 10:1 on productivity measurements and an amazing 5:1 on program speed and space measurements!” – The Mythical Man-Month
https://10xfive.com/2018/07/31/origin-of-10x-principle/