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in the context of the computer software industry, what would be the opposite of "assemble a team"?

a colleague of mine (who is a native english speaker) suggested "dissemble", but looking up the word meaning yield:

Dissemble
Conceal or disguise one's true feelings or beliefs […]

… so it seems she meant "disassemble":

Disassemble
Take (something) to pieces […]

since i don't question her lingual skills, i wonder; could "dissemble" be used in that context, interchangeably?

NVZ
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Eliran Malka
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8 Answers8

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MorganFR wrote in a comment: "you're probably looking for disband or one of its synonyms."

Disband — M-W

transitive verb: to break up the organization of : dissolve
intransitive verb: to break up as an organization : disperse

"They've decided to disband the club."
"The members of the organization have decided to disband."

Community
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NVZ
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  • what about my secondary question; could "dissemble" be used in place of "disassemble"? – Eliran Malka Jan 25 '17 at 16:37
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    @EliranMalka I'd say yes unless you're writing formally, in which case maybe (depending on if it's strictly correct, which it may not be). If you say "he dissembled the team" in a conversation, everyone will understand exactly what you mean – Joe Jan 25 '17 at 16:41
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    dissemble means to lie. disassemble means to break apart. – Paul Chernoch Jan 25 '17 at 16:55
  • @Joe - i'm glad to hear that, since i was looking for the shortest word that conveys the meaning, and the term will be used in the most informal context, i.e. it will be the name of a command in a command-line tool, used by developers (we're as casual as can be..) – Eliran Malka Jan 25 '17 at 17:08
  • @PaulChernoch - thank you, that was established already, i was looking for a loophole :) – Eliran Malka Jan 25 '17 at 17:08
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    @EliranMalka I would say that using dissemble when you mean take apart is an error. People might still do it, as your colleague suggested, but they would be wrong. – Hellion Jan 25 '17 at 17:37
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    Thirding @PaulChernoch. You can use dissemble when you mean disband or disassemble, but you run the risk that someone who hears you/reads your code will actually know what the word means and either a) get confused about what you mean or b) know what you mean, but think you sound ignorant. – 1006a Jan 25 '17 at 17:53
  • @1006a - good point; i certainly do not wanna sound ignorant. you win. – Eliran Malka Jan 25 '17 at 17:59
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    @1006a "You can use dissemble"... You might as well say that you can use aardvark when you mean disband or disassemble, but you run the risk that someone [...] gets confused (unless you're Humpty Dumpty). OP should stick with disband. – TripeHound Jan 27 '17 at 16:55
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    @TripeHound Yes, that was my point...which the OP got. – 1006a Jan 27 '17 at 17:02
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    If you say "he dissembled the team" in a conversation, everyone will understand exactly what you mean. I think this is true, but not because 'dissembled' makes sense here. In fact, precisely because it does not make sense, everyone will automatically assume that you meant "he disassembled the team" but slurred/elided/muted the 'a' sound. Most people wouldn't even consciously notice the difference between what you said and what they understood. – Tim Sparkles Jan 28 '17 at 05:29
  • @Timbo Until you said this, there is a good chance I would NOT have understood what someone meant by "he dissembled the team". I tend to take things very literally and precisely without meaning to, and I have a large vocabulary. I stumble at the difference in pronunciation between "effect" and "affect", "your" and "you're", and so on. I once thought Beccy wasn't at a social function because I heard the questioner ask for "Becky". – ErikE Jan 29 '17 at 08:58
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dissolve.

See https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dissolve

Typical uses are to: dissolve parliament, dissolve a partnership, dissolve a marriage. "break up" is given as its synonym.

Part of the definition from Merriam-Webster:

transitive verb

1a : to cause to disperse or disappear : destroy (do not dissolve and deface the laws of charity — Francis Bacon)

1b : to separate into component parts : disintegrate (dissolved the company into smaller units)

1c : to bring to an end : terminate (the king's power to dissolve parliament) (their partnership was dissolved)

1d law : annul (dissolve an injunction)

Paul Chernoch
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Break up

1.1 (of a gathering or collective) disband

In your context, you might say

After Tim left, management decided to break up the team

Also consider 'split':

After Tim left, management decided to split the team

Michael
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  • Just an observation of different nuances. Disband implies the the team ceases to exist. Split implies that the team is divided and the pieces continue to exist. Break up is ambiguous. It could mean the same as disband. It could mean the same as split. It could also refer to "repurposing" the team members in a way that preserves the team's experience by seeding the members into other teams. – fixer1234 Jan 29 '17 at 20:09
  • @fixer1234 Definitely true. Good point. – Michael Jan 30 '17 at 09:21
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In the peculiar project management parlance the stages of team development are:

The five stages:

Stage 1: Forming

Stage 2: Storming

Stage 3: Norming

Stage 4: Performing

Stage 5: Adjourning

You are asking about the final stage, adjourning, as the project is closed out and the team disbands.

Spehro Pefhany
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  • it rhymes! love it! – Eliran Malka Jan 26 '17 at 09:20
  • True or not, I wouldn't recognise any of these terms. – Lightness Races in Orbit Jan 26 '17 at 18:04
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit I agree they are not normal English, however they are common terms in software project management, which is the area the OP mentioned. – Spehro Pefhany Jan 26 '17 at 19:23
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    @SpehroPefhany: Sorry, I forgot I'm not on Stack Overflow here so you wouldn't know — to be clear, I'm a software development manager. :) – Lightness Races in Orbit Jan 26 '17 at 19:49
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit In that case I probably should specify that they're PMI terminology straight out of PMBOK. None of which is necessary to actually competently manage a project, of course, but credentialism rules these days. – Spehro Pefhany Jan 26 '17 at 21:00
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    Feels like "adjourning" was chosen bacause it rhymes, not because it it the most appropriate... – heltonbiker Jan 27 '17 at 16:18
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    @heltonbiker Only, it doesn't rhyme! Unless you pronounce it incorrectly. "Form" doesn't sound like "fern". – ErikE Jan 29 '17 at 09:00
  • @heltonbiker Agreed - 'Adjourning' implies that it's only a temporary halt, whereas the implication of 'final stage' is that it's permanent. – peterG Jan 29 '17 at 13:18
  • @peterG Of course in an organization that is project-oriented, members of the team will likely be reassigned to work together on other projects so it's not completely outlandish. – Spehro Pefhany Jan 29 '17 at 14:48
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I think that there are nuances to the chosen antonym. Dissolve and disband imply that the team is disassembled virtually passively - the individuals returning to previous roles. Dismantling the team conveys a requirement for additional effort, perhaps to identify alternative placements for the defunct team's members.

Dissolve is frequently used to describe a process that requires little or no apparent effort:

"Casein (a dairy protein) will not simply dissolve in water." "After failing to convene for the third time in succession, the Office Party Committee dissolved by unspoken consent."

Disband is generally used when members of a group or unit stop acting collectively:

"I started the band, I disbanded it. It's as simple as that." - John Lennon.

Dismantle requires work to be done and does not generally occur effortlessly:

Originally meant to describe the destruction of the defenses of a fortress (French: "uncloaking" the fortress), the word still conveys that effort is required.

"The Lego Certified Professional will carefully dismantle his prototype, rather than dropping it on the workbench to break it apart"

Mike VanIn
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What about Dismantle?

definition: to get rid of a system or organization, usually over a period of time:

-Over the next three years, we will be gradually dismantling the company and selling off the profitable units.

-Unions accuse the government of dismantling the National Health Service.

Source: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press

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ylnor
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  • Note that "dismantle" has a connotation: That of destroying from the outside, hollowing-out? So it's used in distructive/negative contexts. – uliwitness Jan 28 '17 at 19:51
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"Dissemble" only ever means fibbing, lying or obfuscating. Is is not an antonym of "assemble". Probably grammarians have a term for this, "false antonym" or something.

As others have said, "disband" or "dissolve" would be the normal words to use for breaking up a team. "Disassemble" is an antonym for assemble but is not, in my experience, idiomatic for disbanding a group of people in formal contexts.

Your friend may be engaging in word play (I had a friend who insisted on "disintegrate" for taking the derivative in calculus, since it was the opposite of integrating) or she may be making an honest mistake. "Dissemble" is actually pretty obscure and it's possible she heard it in an ambiguous context and just starting using it for what it sounds like it might mean. "Infamous" is another one that that happens to. Perhaps someone famous will use "dissemble the committee" on Twitter and it'll catch on.

CCTO
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  • I suppose "disintegrate" would have been the term had the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus come before the two separate branches. – bright-star Jan 29 '17 at 04:39
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It's verb (noun is different) break up
phrasal verb of break

definition: disintegrate or disperse. "the grey clouds had begun to break up" (of a gathering or collective) disband; end. "after about an hour, the meeting broke up"

Michael was first, but still.

Vladimir Markiev
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