It is perhaps a myth, but an enduring one, that people and their pets resemble one
another. The same has been said of products and the teams that build them.
The system being produced will tend to have a structure which
mirrors the structure of the group that is producing it, whether
or not this was intended. One should take advantage of this fact,
and then deliberately design the group structure so as to achieve
the desired system structure. (Conway 1968; commonly referred
to as “Conway’s Law”)
Chapter Contents
- Feed Them Two Pizzas
- Why Two Pizzas Are Enough
- Small Team Productivity
- Favor Feature Teams
- Use Component Teams Sparingly
- Who Makes These Decisions?
- What’s Right Today May Be Wrong Tomorrow
- Self-Organizing Doesn’t Mean Randomly Assembled
- Getting the Right People on the Team
- Put People on One Project
- Time on Task Decreases with Too Many Tasks
- When Multitasking Is OK
- The Corporate Form of Multitasking
- Stopping the Treadmill
- Guidelines for Good Team Structure
- Onward
- Additional Reading