Conway’s Law and Sociology in Software Architecture
summary
Examines Conway’s Law from systems theory and constructivist sociology rather than typical IT views, contrasting IT systems with social systems and asking how observers and organizational structures shape architecture. Uses thinkers like Paul Watzlawick, Heinz von Foerster and Niklas Luhmann to argue that social dynamics and observation processes influence software architecture more than mere component counts.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Conway’s Law
- 3:38Conway’s Law explained
- 14:12What is software?
- 20:36Organizations as social systems
- 27:42Second-order observation
- 31:56Social systems and software
- 36:35System change and Conway’s Law
- 37:40Summary
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