Team Topologies

2	Conway’s Law and Why It Matters

[Conway’s law] creates an imperative to keep asking: “Is there a better design that is not available to us because of our organization?”

—Mel Conway, Toward Simplifying Application Development, in a Dozen Lessons

In Chapter 1, we discussed why organizations need to consider team organization as an integral factor to success. We also discussed the underpinning ideas and principles that help us understand how teams work within an organization. We introduced some key concepts that we will begin to build on throughout the book. In the remaining chapters of Part I, we will discuss in more detail what Conway’s law reveals about teams, organization structure, and software architecture; then we will dig into what ...