April 13, 2007 9 pregnant women… 
...Can't a baby in 1 month make.
I was reminded of this maxim of software development as I read Gruber's breakdown of the delay of Apple's OS X "Leopard" in favor of the iPhone's June launch. I quote:
There's a difference between throwing new hires at a late project (which almost never works, and almost always in fact makes things worse), and allocating the OS team the resources it needs. OS X is being asked to do far more – powering both iPhone and Apple TV while continuing its role as a desktop and server OS for the Mac – but with almost no additional engineering talent.
I've had the privilege of being a member of project and account teams responsible for incredible successes. Those teams were also subject to sometimes urgent needs and requests from clients, and management fearful of accusations of resource problems. Well, of course we have the staff and capabilities to respond to your needs. Of course you're not limited to that dedicated team that you met the last time you visited our office. The reality? That team's all that you've got allocated to your project. The result? Crunchtime, and compromised efforts on maintenance or longer term goals.
The answer? Transparency in your process and structure, and appreciation of smart, dedicated account resources. No matter how small the project at hand, if you've a longstanding account relationship, you're looking for stewardship of your brand (design), platform (technology), and messaging (strategy). A team that takes pride in their work and your relationship is ensuring continuity, consistency, and integrity in your project, and while you may be able to swap in some resources for production work, when it's crunchtime you want to trust that important, urgent project to someone who has invested time and effort understanding your needs and goals.
Back to Apple, you're ensuring a much better final product by accepting reality, biting the bullet, and shifting the timeline for delivery. Throwing resources at it will not make it happen sooner: You'll have likely wasted resources on training and ramp up, and lost that spirit of dedication and commitment that your core team possessed. Sometimes things just take time, and the proper environment and care.
