Conway's Law

Definitions

1. The observation that organizations design systems that mirror their communication structures. A company with four teams will produce a four-component architecture. The inverse (Inverse Conway Maneuver) deliberately restructures teams to produce the desired architecture. Explains why microservices require autonomous teams.

   In plain English: The idea that the structure of your software will inevitably mirror the structure of the teams that built it.

   Example: "The monolith has three tightly-coupled modules because we have three teams that sit next to each other — Conway's Law in action."

Related Terms

• Conway's Law
• Two-Pizza Team
• Dunbar's Number
• Maker vs Manager Schedule
• Project Structure
• Config Driven Development
• Headless Development
• Second System Syndrome
• Code Organization
• Code Structure