Conway’s Law
Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization’s communication structure.
Significance in Software Architecture, based on Martin Fowler’s article
(https://martinfowler.com/bliki/ConwaysLaw.html)
Conway’s Law is widely regarded as the single most influential factor on software architecture among practitioners.
“Conway understood that software coupling is enabled and encouraged by human communication.” (Chris Ford)
Accepting Conway’s law is better than fighting it - this leads to the inverse Conway Maneuver:
The Inverse Conway Maneuver: Rather than fight the law, modern practitioners advocate evolving team structure and architecture together to promote the desired system design.
Source: How Do Committees Invent?
Note
This content was drafted with assistance from AI tools for research, organization, and initial content generation. All final content has been reviewed, fact-checked, and edited by the author to ensure accuracy and alignment with the author’s intentions and perspective.