In 1968, programmer Melvin Conway stated:
“organizations which design systems … are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.”
Basically, if you have three teams building a compiler, they’ll likely build a three-pass compiler, while if you only have two teams, you’ll get a two-pass compiler. Your architecture reflects your organizational structure, and if you want a certain technical architecture, you need to realign your organizational structure.
Since dubbed Conway’s Law, it rings especially true with micro-services architecture today, which often aggravates communication problems.
I recently chatted with Jen Riggins about how organizations can use this type of thinking to structure themselves differently which will lead to a better, and more adaptable, architecture.