3 ms·

I certainly hope you have more modules than teams in your organisation.

by Ma8ee 6y ago

Jtsummers 6y ago
That's a weird reading of what I wrote. To expand: Conway's Law suggests that each module maps to one team (or subtree of your hierarchy), but not that each team is mapped to only one module. You would have one team responsible for, say, your authentication service (assuming it is a singular service and not a collection of services) but that team may also be responsible for some other services. If you have multiple teams responsible for the same module/service, then over time they will generally gather together under a new hierarchy or merge into one team. So if your authentication service is presently managed by teams under Alice and Bob (and this is a singular poorly decomposed service) then the following are typical outcomes: 1. Alice and Bob's will become co-leads (teams merging). 2. Alice and Bob end up with a mutual manager Charlie (new or shifted hierarchy). 3. Either Alice or Bob's team because the sole responsible team (shifted responsibilities) 4. Either Alice or Bob is placed above the other (similar to 2, but one gets a promotion). 5. You're lucky and Alice and Bob are able to coordinate their respective teams effectively despite the lack of common hierarchy (uncommon in the long run). 6. You're typical and Alice and Bob and their teams fail to cooperate and you have frequent fires that your all-stars put out (and likely caused) and get promoted for. (1)-(4) are what Conway's Law suggests will happen in the end. Though it's impossible to say when, it usually happens after (6) becomes an embarrassment to someone.
- Ma8ee 6y ago
  I read your comment as the only reason to have a modular design was because of Conway's law. And my point was that there are very many reason to embrace modular design that has nothing to do with the organisation of the teams.
  - Jtsummers 6y ago
    > I read your comment as the only reason to have a modular design was because of Conway's law. I have no idea where you got "only", it was not in my comment or the one above that I responded to. "a way" was what the original comment used, and I was saying that it was true about modular design generally as well. Neither of us used "only", that is an invention of your reading and is a bizarre one.

I certainly hope you have more modules than teams in your organisation.

by Ma8ee 6y ago

I certainly hope you have more modules than teams in your organisation.

That's a weird reading of what I wrote. To expand: Conway's Law suggests that each module maps to one team (or subtree of your hierarchy), but not that each team is mapped to only one module. You would have one team responsible for, say, your authentication service (assuming it is a singular service and not a collection of services) but that team may also be responsible for some other services. If you have multiple teams responsible for the same module/service, then over time they will generally gather together under a new hierarchy or merge into one team. So if your authentication service is presently managed by teams under Alice and Bob (and this is a singular poorly decomposed service) then the following are typical outcomes: 1. Alice and Bob's will become co-leads (teams merging). 2. Alice and Bob end up with a mutual manager Charlie (new or shifted hierarchy). 3. Either Alice or Bob's team because the sole responsible team (shifted responsibilities) 4. Either Alice or Bob is placed above the other (similar to 2, but one gets a promotion). 5. You're lucky and Alice and Bob are able to coordinate their respective teams effectively despite the lack of common hierarchy (uncommon in the long run). 6. You're typical and Alice and Bob and their teams fail to cooperate and you have frequent fires that your all-stars put out (and likely caused) and get promoted for. (1)-(4) are what Conway's Law suggests will happen in the end. Though it's impossible to say when, it usually happens after (6) becomes an embarrassment to someone.

Ma8ee 6y ago
I read your comment as the only reason to have a modular design was because of Conway's law. And my point was that there are very many reason to embrace modular design that has nothing to do with the organisation of the teams.
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  > I read your comment as the only reason to have a modular design was because of Conway's law. I have no idea where you got "only", it was not in my comment or the one above that I responded to. "a way" was what the original comment used, and I was saying that it was true about modular design generally as well. Neither of us used "only", that is an invention of your reading and is a bizarre one.