[jamieb]

Here's another quote: "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

My experience, anecdotal as it is, is that an open space per team is the most effective. This being science, when has the truth ever been precisely one end of the spectrum or the other? I'm naturally skeptical of pundits, advocating science, who point out that developers with their own office perform better than developer who share an open space with the call center and then claim that this demonstrates that private offices are the best solution.

The key quote from the article is "quieter and more private".

Maybe in the days when The Architect wrote a design doc and The Engineers went into their offices for six months, then a private office was a great way to get to the "Oh fuck this thing will never work" moment faster.

In contrast most teams I work with collaborate at the feature level: engineers work on the same feature, implementing different pieces together, before moving on to the next feature. We have other teams where individual developers take a feature and go off and work on it for a few days. The "individuals" are "faster" claiming work is complete, but the "teams" are faster at producing work that is accepted.

I should also add that while the team environment works for most engineers, we have some that absolutely require a private space, and we try to accommodate them. Individuals work differently and when we find someone good we try to make the environment work for them.

YMMV.

[wmeredith]

The simple answer is that these office plans are cheaper. It's a common business pitfall. The cheaper short term solution wins in spite of long term health productivity and culture advantages.

[notahacker]

That might be true in some cases but there's an entire industry built around renting open-plan workspaces to solo founders and freelancers who freely choose to spend an extra $5000 per year and an hour's commute time each day because they feel an "office environment" surrounded by other busy professionals focuses their mind better than the serene quiet of their bedside desk. Many of them are developers.

[gojomo]

Some workplaces don't limit it to "an open space per team", but mix multiple teams, whose distractions aren't relevant to other teams, in the same big room.

[sheepmullet]

"In contrast most teams I work with collaborate at the feature level: engineers work on the same feature, implementing different pieces together, before moving on to the next feature"

Collaboration is much better with private offices. If Steve and Jim and Sally are working on a feature together then they can all take their laptops into Steves office and work on it together.

On the other hand even something as simple as pair programming in an open office can disturb dozens of other people. Where I work teams will book out meeting rooms for a few days at a time just to be able to collaborate without annoying the rest of the floor.