In this episode I will explain Conway’s Law, and leadership strategies we can employ to avoid it.

Topics:

• Conway's Law is the principle that organizations design systems that mirror their own communication structures.
• This concept, introduced by computer scientist Melvin Conway in 1967, suggests a powerful link between the social dynamics of an organization and the technical outcomes it produces.
• In essence, the way teams are structured and how they communicate will inevitably be reflected in the architecture of the systems they build.
• The core idea of Conway's Law can be summarized in his original phrasing: "Organizations which design systems (in the broad sense used here) are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations." Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law
• This means that the boundaries between teams and the paths of communication (or lack thereof) will manifest as interfaces and dependencies in the final product.
• Or put simply: your system architecture will reflect your organization, not the other way around.
• Why does this matter? Because the inherit problems in your organization, be it communication siloes or political fiefdoms, will be reflected in your systems. This is an undesirable outcome in most cases.
• For example, if a company is divided into distinct, siloed departments for the user interface, backend logic, and database management, the resulting software is likely to have rigid and complex interfaces between these components.
• Conversely, a small, highly collaborative team is more likely to produce a tightly integrated, monolithic system.
• Conway's Law has significant implications for software development, product design, and overall organizational effectiveness.
• The law suggests that the design of a system is often predetermined by the organization's structure, even before any technical decisions are made. A fragmented organization will tend to produce a fragmented system.
• The ease and frequency of communication between teams directly impact the integration and cohesion of the final product. Poor communication can lead to duplicated effort, conflicting designs, and a disjointed user experience.
• As leaders, how do we challenge the apparent status quo highlighted by Conway’s Law?
  1. Some organizations are experimenting with inverting Conway’s Law, for example by designing their team structures upfront to reflect the desired system outcomes. I think this is an interesting idea. Ref: Conway's Law - Psych Safety
  2. We should encourage our team members to welcome change and enjoy moving around teams or forming new teams on the fly to reflect the desired system outcomes. For example, as a new feature is required, then a new team is formed on the fly AROUND that feature, rather than trying to feed that feature into an existing team.
  3. Competition is healthy, but team managers should not feel that they are competing for resources, including people. Sadly, this anti-pattern is very common, and results in the hoarding of talented people inside teams that may no longer require them. You will need to spot this trend and challenge it.
  4. In a fluid organization, people will follow project work demand and form new teams organically. This requires a very flexible mindset, one that you will need to hire as it is not common and very difficult to instill in someone with a fixed mindset. Effectively this becomes an internal marketplace for projects matching people, rather than rigid inflexible structures.
  5. Creating cross-functional teams with people from different parts of the organization working on the same project can help to break down silos.
• Leaders can proactively design their organizational structure to foster the kind of collaboration and communication that will lead to the desired system architecture.
• As leaders, it is our job to build the team effectively, so that they can build the system.
• The wrong team will result in the wrong system: this is the main downstream impact of Conway’s Law.
• By acknowledging the profound influence of organizational structure on technical outcomes, companies can move from accidentally creating systems that mirror their internal dysfunctions to intentionally designing organizations that produce elegant and effective solutions.
• Start with a whiteboard and design the system first and then design the organization to achieve it.

Download audio

techleaderpro-2025-week-39.mp3

File details: 7.6 MB MP3, 5 mins 40 secs duration.

Title music is "Apparent Solution" by Brendon Moeller, licensed via www.epidemicsound.com

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