Conway's Law - Organizations design systems that mirror their communication structure
When designing systems or teams
What Does “Conway's Law - Organizations design systems that mirror their communication structure” Mean?
System architectures reflect organizational structure. Teams that don't talk produce disconnected systems. Communication patterns determine system boundaries and interfaces.
Origin and History
Computer scientist Melvin Conway proposed the idea in his 1968 paper 'How Do Committees Invent?': organizations that design systems are constrained to produce designs that copy their own communication structures. Fred Brooks named it 'Conway's Law' in The Mythical Man-Month (1975).
What Happens When You Break It
Ignoring Conway's Law produces systems that reflect organizational dysfunction, creating poor architectures that mirror communication problems.
Benefits of Following This Rule
Understanding Conway's Law enables structuring teams to produce desired architectures, recognizing that organization design determines system design.