Would You Live in a House with Four Architects and No Plan?

Imagine moving into a house designed by four different architects—none of whom ever spoke to each other. One side is a sleek concrete box, another has a sloped wooden roof, a third looks like a classical temple, and the kitchen is a glass pod from a sci-fi movie.

It all technically works. The house has doors, windows, walls, and a roof. But nothing matches. Nothing flows. And trying to fix or expand it becomes a nightmare.

Now imagine building software the same way.

Small Teams, Big Problems

This kind of chaos often shows up in small development teams—startups, internal dev groups, or agencies working on client projects. Why? Because small teams usually wear many hats, move fast, and face constant pressure to ship.

In the rush, architecture takes a back seat. Each developer brings their own way of doing things. Folder structures vary, naming conventions shift, third-party libraries are chosen ad hoc. The result is a codebase that becomes harder to manage with each new feature or teammate.

When someone leaves or a new developer joins, the first few weeks are spent just trying to understand why things were done a certain way—or worse, undoing them.

Opinionated Frameworks Are a Lifeline

That’s why I strongly recommend using opinionated frameworks like Django.

Django doesn’t just give you tools—it gives you structure. It comes with strong conventions for models, views, templates, routing, authentication, and more. It says: “Here’s the standard way to do this.”

In a small team, this is gold. You don’t waste time debating folder structures or inventing your own ORM patterns. You just follow the framework’s guide rails and focus on delivering value.

More benefits for small teams:

• Onboarding is faster: New devs know what to expect
• Maintenance is easier: Fewer surprises in the codebase
• Less technical debt: You’re not reinventing solutions
• Easier handoffs: Between freelancers, contractors, or internal changes

Constraints That Empower

Sure, an opinionated framework like Django imposes some constraints. But in practice, these constraints prevent chaos. They let you build faster, with more confidence, and less guesswork.

And when you're part of a small team, that structure becomes a force multiplier.

Final Thought

If you wouldn’t live in a house with mismatched rooms and no master plan, why build your software that way?

For small teams especially, the cost of inconsistency is high. Choose a framework that brings structure, clarity, and convention from day one.

Choose Django.