[jerf]

"Really, the one consistent thing is that if you have a good team, you'll make it work no matter what tech or decisions you make (assuming you're also good enough to know when you've lost and change course), and if you're a bad team, you're doomed to failure, because, well, you're bad (by definition)."

The middle ground is vast, and nuanced in many dimensions. Which is a good thing, because there sure aren't very many large, good teams (by this definition of "good").

[cbanek]

Totally agree. Also many teams aren't all "good" or "bad" people, but more a mix of people with different skillsets and viewpoints, and it's not as if all good people think you should do it one way, and bad people the other.

I think the normal case though is that there are too many cooks, and they spoil the broth. I've had teams where one person wants to go off and make their own repo just because, and can't be convinced to follow the rest of the team. Sometimes these are good people, although I find a lot of "bad" people don't want to be team players and be consistent, even if being consistent means doing something they don't like.