My Takeaways, are a collection of information and concepts that I learn through books, programming, and work experiences. In some cases these posts will be just my personal notes. While they may not give you the audience much pleasure in reading, they will serve as my digital resource library.

Conway’s Law. The following link is an article on Conway’s Law and the source for most of this post.

Conway’s Law comes from Melvin Conway, and it states:

Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization’s communication structure.

Since I am a visual person, the Manu Cornet’s visual interpretation of this law helps me better understand how this plays out in some of the top companies.

I like the multiple comparisons, but Google and Apple drive home the concept, I think.

For example, both companies sell digital content, music, movies, and games, but there sales ‘system’ is inherently connected to their communication structure. Apple has been and hopefully always will be known for their singular vision. This radiated from Steve Jobs and continues with Tim Cook that first and foremost Apple was a hardware company. All sales of digital content are made to promote the sale of hardware. The purchase of digital content, only useable on Apple hardware, from ITunes creates a circular effect that draws you into buying/upgrading your Apple devices. Hence, there system always radiates from a central location.

For Google, selling digital content is a part of the hierarchy of items that they sell to gain a profit. There communication method is not centrally located, but with more of areas overlapping. This creates a radiating effect as communication grows additional overlap and reconnecting is required. They are multiple visions. Selling digital Media is only one part of the greater scheme.

Interesting! Right! So, with this info what is your companies communication model, and how does it play into your systems design?