Software Architect's Handbook

Law III – Self-regulation

The evolution of a software system is self-regulating. Particularly with large systems, there are structural and organizational factors that affect and constrain changes to a software system. Structural factors include the size and complexity of the software system. As a software system grows, it becomes larger and more complex, making it increasingly more difficult to make more changes. For this reason, as a typical software system grows older, its growth will inevitably slow down.

Organizational factors such as gaining consensus on decisions and getting approvals to move forward with proposed changes influence the amount of change that can actually take place in a software system.