Re: Lead developers vs 'Helpers'

David N. Welton wrote:

>I got to thinking...
>
>>From a free software business point of view, what is the difference
>between 'lead developers' and 'helpers'.
>  
>
Lead devs tend to be Architects.

>With many medium sized projects, it's pretty obvious who runs things
>and does most of the work.  This is the person who you would also go
>to for consulting, training, or whose name would look best on a book,
>even if there are other people who know the code and do work on it.
>  
>
Confused about Name-On-Book.

>I wonder how important this distinction is in economic terms?
>
Economic terms for the lead dev is that s/he gets more. The more you do, 
the more you should get paid. Sounds weird when a lead dev doesn't 
always *appear* to do that much, but the lead dev has to have some 
hacker credibility to be a lead dev...  plus, being an architect can be 
a full time job.

My two cents. Mileage may vary.

Taran