Can you explain why you think this will happen to undersized teams more often?
If it's an indication that something is wrong with the team, I think that's still helpful. For instance, if the team does not have the right experience and are often blocked waiting for someone else's answer to a question, it might make sense to work on team composition. It's not about blaming people or teams, but about improving flow.
Often you literally don't have hiring headcount allocated to your team. Sadly the solution is to make the team implode to force the company to fund it properly.
Just have seen it quite a lot. QA, Ops, etc, are often viewed as a cost center and thus underfunded. It's common to then challenge the "productivity" versus looking at whether the team is undersized or funded.
> It's common to then challenge the "productivity" versus looking at whether the team is undersized or funded.
This exactly. The typical management "solution" is to identify and fire "poor performers" (thereby creating fear, mistrust, and an incentive to look for other jobs) while ordering everyone else to "work harder" for longer hours (with the implied threat that you will lose your job if you don't.)
If it's an indication that something is wrong with the team, I think that's still helpful. For instance, if the team does not have the right experience and are often blocked waiting for someone else's answer to a question, it might make sense to work on team composition. It's not about blaming people or teams, but about improving flow.