... 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.
-- How Do Committees Invent?, Melvin Conway
(aka Conway's Law)
-- How Do Committees Invent?, Melvin Conway
(aka Conway's Law)
... we have found a criterion for the structuring of design organizations: a design effort should be organized according to the need for communication.
This criterion creates problems because the need to communicate at any time depends on the system concept in effect at that time. Because the design which occurs first is almost never the best possible, the prevailing system concept may need to change.
Therefore, flexibility of organization is important to effective design.
Ways must be found to reward design managers for keeping their organizations lean and flexible. There is need for a philosophy of system design management which is not based on the assumption that adding manpower simply adds to productivity.
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