Technology Radar July 2014 | Thoughtworks
Conway's law
Conway's Law, that states that "organizations which design systems ... are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations", keeps appearing in unexpected places. One of the key tenets of the Agile Manifesto is "People over Processes and Tools", and we see Conway's Law reinforcing this idea both negatively and positively. Some companies are mired in siloed structures that add needless friction to engineering efforts, while more enlightened companies use team organization to drive the kinds of architectures they want. We're learning the peril of ignoring Conway's Law and the benefits of leveraging it.