Implications of Conway’s Law on Enterprise Systems

You’ve gotta read this great post from Ray Valdez – 

 

He asks the question :

Not to fall completely into cynicism, I grant the possibility that positive outcomes exist: synergistic scenarios in which both the organization and the artifact co-evolve to a better place. My question to you: when and where have you seen this happy circumstance?

We’ve seen this perfect harmony happen with several of our clients – and it usually happens when they are falling behind in the market. When enterprises are starting to lose market-share and are becoming irrelevant to their customers, they start to realize that they can’t “go it alone”. More importantly, they realize they need to change how things are accomplished from the ground up. They look externally not only for help in crafting software, but strategy around how to reshape how they develop and maintain that software internally… Just as companies had to re-think and innovate in the “Web 1.0” world, they become aware that they need to do the same in the new, rich client world.

• Conway's Law