site banner

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 3, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

2
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I usually people hear their projects called "small, medium or large." There's not a hard definition. Small projects can be comfortably worked by one person. Large projects probably need at least a team, maybe multiple. Medium projects probably need a small team.

Probably when you talk about project size you need to be more specific. Larger projects tend to:

  • have more consumers
  • change slowly rather than rapidly
  • be deployed as multiple services
  • have multiple experts who know sub-systems, rather than one expert who knows everything
  • have long release cycles, requiring batched testing approaches

These are not caused by "high LOC." Perhaps I'm describing "(poorly written) enterprise software." But these are still things people sometimes mean when they talk about "large project" or "small project."