I can only speak about collaboration with respect to working for my employer. Having said that, I firmly believe that no man is an island and that to achieve the best results, each role of the web/app dev process should be properly delegated and that inter-role relationships should be encouraged for the betterment of any project.

I have worked on tons of projects. Each have a Project Mgr (PM), DBA, UI Developer, Software Developer, Quality Assurance (QA) and Business Analyst. Each role has their part to play. We follow strict software development practices. We go through code reviews, mock releases, etc. Even though we have our distinct roles, if anyone needs a hand and any of us can help out, we do it. For example, though I am a UI developer, if QA comes up with a defect on the back end and it is something I can do, I don't let it go because it isn't my job. Rather, I step up to the plate and do it. Why? Because at the end of the day, if the project fails, the client won't single out any particular role. It is the whole team that fails.

Advantages of Collaboration (for me, at least):
1) You get to work with a diverse group of people, each with their own temperament, attitude, work ethic, etc.
2) You get to learn things that are outside of your domain of responsibility
3) You get to do things in a structured, as opposed to haphazard, way
4) Division of labor ensures that each aspect in the development process is done in an efficient manner

Disadvantages of Collaboration (Again, at least for me):
1) If you are unlucky to work with people with a bad work ethic, you end up doing the bulk of th work.
2) If the project succeeds, everyone gets praised. Conversely, if it fails, even if you had nothing to do with it, you are also labeled as a failure.
3) Does not allow for individual praise.

Those are all based on my experiences in the field. Bottom line, collaboration is very good and I would strongly recommend it. The days of working by yourself in a dark room are over. Today, with no time zones and globalization running amok, collaboration is the new work ethic du jour. Sure, one person can do everything from writing up the proposal to coding the entire site. However, that to me amounts to incest and at best, you learn very little and the project suffers. Unfortunately, in this our obodo Naija where some are willing to charge as low as 40K for a site, unemployment is rampant both of which result in many reading "how to code html in 24 hours" and calling themselves "webmasters" thereafter as well as clients taking advantage of the situation, it is tough to tell someone who just managed to score it "big" to split the meagre proceeds with a fellow developer. On that, I hesitantly have to admit.

Good thread. I am curious to know what others have to say.

well what a good thread, well collaboration is pretty good and even looking forward to collaborate with others, i was formerly working with a team, still work as a team though, thats if they pass the web interface design to me, the team is made up of 5, good team to say with good brains, my roles are to slices and dice the web layout and pass it on the coder, other guys come for review to check if this and that goes, if the color combinations are ok, if the logo is really saying what they do and all that, mainly my role is just the Interface designs, after slicing and dicing, pass it on to d coder, who now codes it, because he will like to make sure everything works fine on the back ends, then he uploads the file him selves,

Even though i have experience of coding i don't do it, i just pass it on to who ever i know who does it, it's another thing to specialize on one thing, it another thing to be very good at it.

Now when it comes to software development, sometimes when i'm free i just do the interface designs, pass it on to d Java or VB guy, then they put it up in the software, after that, everyone comes back to review the software and criticize it,

Now the issue of freelance creative guys, the thing is when job is been executed, you can have 3 of your friends who has graphical sense to criticize it for you and when they are done, you go back to the drawing board and tune up your radio very well to get a clear frequency. So i love collaboration

outside nigeria, 10 people could handle a 5page website, and it will come up fine, different roles for each person.

i don't have regret of working with teams either, but what i hate is when they use u like crazy

Interesting thread.

Bill Gates started what became the world's most widely used software working with just one person. One keeps writing the code and the other keeps testing.

Youtube was developed by just 2 people (who were working at paypal) and in 6 months it was sold for $1.6B.

My point is this, if you can work alone and come out with good projects fine. If you can work with say 2 or even 10 people in any project no matter how small and still come out with good projects all well and good.

Mindsets that tend to oppose people who work alone simply because they may not be able to handle such projects alone are not fair.

I write a lot of codes and I believe I can web enable anything on the web. Of course, it does not even make any sense these days to develop web projects without input from the owners and such inputs sometimes cover the design, layout etc of the project. In cases like this do I need to hire a web designer to replicate a design a client wants when I can replicate it with graphics tools around? I don't think so.

While presenting all the many advantages of working as a group it is vital that you also respect the views of those that prefer to work alone.

The end product (web projects) should be the ultimate decider as regards the correctness or otherwise of people working alone or as part of teams.

@afam, you have spoken thats just it, a guy i know at surulere does everything on his own, thats what me i think about him and all he does comes out fyne

@smartsoft
Then that doesn't belong to this post. This is for "collaborative approaches" and not "is collaboration good or not?"

yawa-ti-de:

@smartsoft
Then that doesn't belong to this post. This is for "collaborative approaches" and not "is collaboration good or not?"

The content in bold does not do justice to an earlier comment reproduced below.

yawa-ti-de:


The days of working by yourself in a dark room are over. Today, with no time zones and globalization running amok, collaboration is the new work ethic du jour. Sure, one person can do everything from writing up the proposal to coding the entire site. However, that to me amounts to incest and at best, you learn very little and the project suffers.

Someone that considers as incest the idea of one person handling a web project cannot be expected to make balanced comments on this issue.

@Afam
I also said:

Unfortunately, in this our obodo Naija where some are willing to charge as low as 40K for a site, unemployment is rampant both of which result in many reading "how to code html in 24 hours" and calling themselves "webmasters" thereafter as well as clients taking advantage of the situation, it is tough to tell someone who just managed to score it "big" to split the meagre proceeds with a fellow developer. On that, I hesitantly have to admit.

Now, is incest a strong choice of words? Probably but I will stand by it. I have worked alone and worked in a collaborative sense and based on my experiences, the +ves outweigh the -ves with respect to collaborating. Again, I state this based on my experiences. By incest by the way, I meant in-breeding of ideas. In other words, no matter how smart one person is, one can only learn but so much on his own as opposed to when he is working with a diverse set of people. No one person knows it all, irrespective of how elegant/functional their sites might be.

Does that clarify things?

yawa-ti-de:

@Afam
I also said:

Now, is incest a strong choice of words? Probably but I will stand by it. I have worked alone and worked in a collaborative sense and based on my experiences, the +ves outweigh the -ves with respect to collaborating. Again, I state this based on my experiences. By incest by the way, I meant in-breeding of ideas. In other words, no matter how smart one person is, one can only learn but so much on his own as opposed to when he is working with a diverse set of people. No one person knows it all, irrespective of how elegant/functional their sites might be.

Does that clarify things?

No, you have not clarified anything, on the contrary you are trying to justify your positions and introducing other parameters like "smartness", "know-it-all" etc which were never part of the equation.

Standing by your use of the word incest doesn't make it right nor proper because I have seen armed robbers that stood by their crimes.

1. If one person understands the different parts of a web project to the extent he can handle it alone then that should be a plus and not a minus.

2. It is possible for one person to know more than a team of say 5 people because knowledge is not a factor of the number of people but a factor of the willingness to learn and ability to assimilate and process information.

My point is this, it is wrong for you to use such a word on people that do not share your opinions based on the level of experiences, no amount of standing by the words will justify it.

PHP was developed by someone, not a team. Hotmail was originally developed by someone that sold it to Microsoft. I am certain that your type would have condemned the efforts of these people long before their projects became successful. Even google was started by two people and not 10 or 20 people.

You cannot or must not use your level of experience or knowledge to make generalizations.

tundewoods:

@ yawa-ti-de

i think i understood what you meant when you used the word incest as relating to inbreeding and the point was well established.

To clarify further i think the fact is that most web projects gotten by an average web designer are what i would refer to as micro projects on very thin budgets therefore its rather hard for an up coming web designer to start carrying what we called the collaborative approach, apart form that i think Nigeria shoud be no exception to collaborative approaches of web development.

We have been through this before on your thread on outsourcing and it boils down to the same thing.

Outsource if it makes sense to you, collaborate if it makes sense to you.

Your preference to anything does not make other views wrong and this is one area where I believe you need to work on.

You always believe you are right and others wrong and such arrogance (usually based on I-know-it-all) makes no sense.

You can be working on all the big projects in the world as you always want everyone to believe, that is not the issue. The issue is that people have different reasons for doing what they do the way they do them and just because you cannot or would not want to do what they do the way they do them is not enough reason to look down on them or condemn them.

From experience, people who have little to offer will be the first to brag and then rubbish others, I wonder how these things make them feel good or accomplished.

Enjoy the day.

Definition(s) of collaboration:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/collaboration

Please note that it doesn't specify a large number.

History of Hotmail:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotmail

Please note that there are 2 names on there, not 1

History of PHP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP

I will give this one to you. However, there is a PHP group (implying collaboration) that currently handles any implementation.

In conclusion, collaboration doesn't imply or mandate that you have to have 20 or 30 people to work together. Just as the Bible says (another form of collaboration), "Where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, there I am also". The point of collaboration is working together and not alone.

Finally, I would like to take you up on another thing you said earlier which is that, "It is possible for one person to know more than a team of say 5 people". Of course, this is true generally speaking however, if you run a company that is out to make money, I doubt you would want to hire such a person as you would be losing money on the others.

Thanks for the correction on the number of people that developed Hotmail. My mistake, I don't visit wikipedia to get information on things and I am glad that out of all the examples cited you were able to fault only one.

However, the point has been made that even projects that became very successful had one person or in some cases two people as against your idea of having many people as a pre-requisite for successful projects.

You are bringing up the definition of collaboration which no one is debating. The crux of the matter remains your use of words that are both improper and unnecessary, no amount of goal shifting will erase that.

I cannot and will not condemn collaboration neither will I oppose those that prefer it.

Where we differ is that I respect people for doing things or believing in things they choose to where as you believe that those that do not agree with your positions that may be based on lack of experience or skills are wrong.

May be with time you will learn to accommodate ideas that are not original to you.

As regards running a company to make money I doubt if you have any advice that is worth taking on that area as I run 2 successful businesses that were started from scratch.

I respect all ideas but am entitled to my opinion which in this case, I will still stand by.

Also, I said:

I doubt you would want to hire such a person as you would be losing money on the others.

Nowhere there did I mention owning/running a company. After all, I do remember my economics/commerce classes from sec sch which says there are 3 forms of ownership: Sole Proprietor, Joint Stock and Partnership