Saturday, March 28, 2009

Conway's Law

A great article from 1968 I used for my dissertation... it's online? The author has a website? People who were publishing in 1968 have websites?

Yes.

There is an overview and the paper (which is short) is also online. Amazing. Go, the internets.

Conway, M. (1968). How do committees invent? Datamation, 14(4), 28-31.

Conway's summary:

Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure.
Ties in nicely with Chandler's Strategy and Structure.