tl; dr: the more rigid the architecture, the less likely it is to fix it through the Inverse Conway Manoeuvre.
Conway’s law tells us that any organization tends to create designs that mirror its communication structure. This has led recently to the realization that the structure of an organization has a powerful impact on the designs it creates.
Therefore, to create architectures better fit to your needs, consider restructuring the organization accordingly.
While this works for new systems, the question is: does it work for existing systems? The Inverse Conway Manoeuvre is the relatively new idea that architecture can be improved by restructuring the organization.
However, Mattias Verraes argues in a recent essay that this has its limits. Watch now to understand Conway’s Law in more detail, to learn its limitations, and to understand how to change a rigid system.
Links:
- “Conway’s Law Doesn’t Apply to Rigid Designs” essay by Mattias Verraes: https://verraes.net/2022/05/conways-law-vs-rigid-designs/
- Paper detailing Conway’s Law, April 1968: https://www.melconway.com/Home/pdf/committees.pdf
