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Playbook · Strategy and influence · 5 steps

Designing team boundaries

Shape the organisation and the architecture together.

“…organizations which design systems … are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.”

Start with step 1 All 75 models for strategy
  1. 1Conway's LawWhich seams in the current system mirror today's org chart?Organisations design systems that mirror their own communication structures.Open
  2. 2Bounded ContextWhere are the natural domain boundaries and languages?A model is only valid inside an explicit boundary; the same word can mean different things in different contexts.Open
  3. 3Inverse Conway ManeuverWhich team structure would produce the target architecture?Shape your teams to match the architecture you want, and the system will follow.Open
  4. 4Cognitive LoadCan each team hold its ownership area in its head?A team can only hold so much in its head; architecture should fit within that limit.Open
  5. 5Brooks's LawWill adding people here speed things up, or slow them down?Adding people to a late software project makes it later.Open