Alistair Cockburn wrote a fascinating article already back in 1999 titled “Characterizing people as non-linear, first-order components in software development”, which is still available through web.archive.org. This is a full-scale scientific paper, so get ready for some reading.

In essence, his message is that people are more important than processes:

The fundamental characteristics of “people” have a first-order effect on software development, not a lower-order effect.

He lists four characteristics of people that are relevant to software development:

1. People are communicating beings, doing best face-to-face, in person, with real-time question and answer.

2. People have trouble acting consistently over time.

3. People are highly variable, varying from day to day and place to place.

4. People generally want to be good citizens, are good at looking around, taking initiative, and doing “whatever is needed” to get the project to work.