KCDC 2025 — Don't Let Your Org Chart Write Bad Code
Luis Fernandez — VML — Technology, eternal student
Don’t Let Your Org Chart Write Bad Code
In this session, we’ll explore why the biggest driver of your software architecture isn’t technology—it’s the way your teams are structured. We’ll dive into Conway’s Law, which explains how software systems mirror the communication patterns within an organization and look at Inverse Conway Maneuvers to see how reorganizing teams can help align architecture with business goals. To ignore Conway’s law is a trap that will lead to software that is more expensive, and less effective, especially in the micro-services and composable era. We’ll also examine Team Topologies, focusing on how different team types and interaction modes reduce complexity, improve collaboration, and speed up delivery.
Real-world examples will demonstrate how intentional organizational design can eliminate silos and enhance product quality by keeping your codebase closely tied to the customer experience and broader business objectives.
Key takeaways
- Understand how Conway’s Law reveals the link between organizational silos and siloed software.
- Apply Inverse Conway Maneuvers to create team structures that support more adaptive architectures.
- Explore Team Topologies and learn how specific team roles and interaction patterns reduce complexity.
- Gain practical ideas for rolling out these changes, managing culture shifts, and measuring success.
Relevant Links
Conway’s Law!!
Articles
- Martin Fowler – Conway’s Law
- Joel Spolsky – Hitting the High Notes
- Conway’s Law in Team Topologies
- Better Software Engineering Teams
- Brooks’s Law
- Hackman’s Law
- Goodhart’s Law
- Larman’s Laws
- Parkinson’s Law
- What Conway’s Law Means for Your Organization
- Simplified Thinking — Essential and Accidental Complexity
- Accidental and Essential Complexity
- Inverse Conway Maneuver: How to speed up product development teams successfully
Videos
- Simplifying Orgs for Adaptiveness & Resilience
- Drawing Boxes – Conway’s Law
- Domain Architecture Isomorphism – Dylan Beattie
- How to Manage Complexity in Software – Hadi Hariri & Kevlin Henney (GOTO 2022)
- You can’t fight Conway’s Law — Avraham Poupko
- Building Teams Through Systems Thinking and Stories — Scott Hanselman
- Team Topologies in Practice: Re-Teaming Using Architecture for Flow
- Team Topologies, Software Architecture & Complexity — James Lewis (GOTO 2022)
- Architecture: The Stuff That’s Hard to Change — Dylan Beattie
- Don’t Forget Conway’s Law — Sarah Novotny Keynote
Books
- Team Topologies — Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
- Peopleware — Tom DeMarco & Tim Lister
- The Mythical Man-Month — Fred Brooks
- AntiPatterns — Brown, Malveau, McCormick, Mowbray
- Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development — Coplien & Harrison
- Code Complete — Steve McConnell
- Emergence — Steven Johnson
- Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture — Martin Fowler
- Joel on Software — Joel Spolsky