Hierarchy is useful for reporting structures outside teams, but strict hierarchy within teams quickly approaches a land of diminishing returns.
No supervisor should have more than 8 people who need active supervision - you can have much larger teams than that, but it works out to a bunch of independently operating contributors and then "point people" who have responsibility for defined tasks. The number of point people is what is constrained by rule of 8.
No supervisor should have more than 8 people who need active supervision - you can have much larger teams than that, but it works out to a bunch of independently operating contributors and then "point people" who have responsibility for defined tasks. The number of point people is what is constrained by rule of 8.