Reckoning with the force of Conway's Law

Thoughtworks Technology Podcast

While putting together this year's Technology Radar, Conway's Law — the idea that organizations are constrained to produce systems that mirror their communication structures — was the subject of a lot of discussion. Should we fight it — by deploying the inverse conway maneuver? Or do we need to adopt a more nuanced approach and consider how we can leverage it?

In this episode of the Technology Podcast, Martin Fowler and James Lewis join hosts Birgitta Böckeler and Mike Mason to delve into Conway's Law. They explore what Conway's Law means for organizations today, how it should — and should not — be applied and why everyone working in and around software systems needs to pay close attention to it.

Read the 1968 paper (by Melvin Conway) that identified the phenomenon.