Large teams often are plagued by inefficient communication. One big reason is the number of 2-way communication links is proportional to the square of team size. An equally big reason is that the effectiveness of each communication link decreases due to: more subject matters, increased specialization, and knowledge transfer leaks on a high percentage of links. These leaks show up as: lack of comprehension, distortion, or even people ignoring important information they believe does not pertain to them. The results are expensive: unrecognized risks, bad management of risks, and ineffective tradeoff decisions.
http://wp.me/PiW0e-56. discusses the concepts of importance, difficulty and centrality, and how they apply to subject matters and effective knowledge transfer.
Charlie Alfred's Weblog 