The Effect of Conway's Law on the Future of Work from Home.

Throughout my 30-year career, I have had the opportunity to work remotely on various projects. Since 2002, I have also been a strong advocate of Scrum and Agile methodologies. One key lesson I learned early on is that communication is crucial, but it is also inherently difficult. Even in situations where everyone receives the same information, such as a presentation or meeting, individuals often leave with different interpretations of the instructions. You’ve likely noticed this yourself after church on a Sunday—when you ask people what the pastor’s message was, you’ll often get a variety of responses. Despite everyone hearing the same sermon, each person internalizes something different based on their life experiences, current mindset, prior knowledge, or even something as simple as how alert they were during the service.

In the context of software development, this phenomenon can lead to unexpected outcomes. The more aligned a team is in communicating a shared vision—focusing on delivering business value to a well-defined target demographic—the more cohesive and effective the resulting solution will be. Melvin Conway observed this dynamic as early as 1967, now encapsulated in what’s known as Conway's Law. He stated:

"Organizations which design systems ... are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations." – Melvin E. Conway

This insight highlights that effective communication within a development team is directly tied to the success of the systems they build. Agile practices emphasize this as well. The Agile Manifesto, published in 2001, explicitly prioritizes "individuals and interactions over processes and tools." Additionally, the manifesto’s sixth principle underscores this idea: "The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation."

Maintaining effective communication is a skill every developer must constantly cultivate to ensure a highly efficient team. It’s easy as developers to get deeply focused on our work—entering a state of "flow" where code pours out effortlessly, and the last thing we want is an interruption. But communication requires us to look beyond our own tasks and consider the needs of the team, ensuring everyone stays aligned.

The transition to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted existing communication challenges within many teams. Some highly effective teams, which already communicated well and often, adapted to remote work without issue. Unfortunately, this wasn’t true for all teams. I’ve personally seen cases where strong, efficient teams fell into silos, working independently and only meeting during mandatory check-ins. These teams had been cohesive before the pandemic, but without intentional efforts to foster communication, they struggled. Teams that already had communication issues rarely improved without explicit, collective efforts to address them.

According to Conway’s Law, the quality of a team’s communication is reflected in the systems they design. Teams that intentionally maintain consistent communication will see that reflected in the cohesiveness and quality of their systems. Conversely, teams that neglect communication will experience the same disconnection in their designs. After four years of remote work, the effects of these communication patterns are becoming apparent in the systems organizations produce.

Organizations that made deliberate efforts to foster open, inclusive communication during remote work are likely in a better position today, with systems reflecting that alignment. On the other hand, companies that struggled with communication remotely are now seeing those difficulties manifest in their systems. If a business is dissatisfied with the direction its systems are heading, improving communication practices is a crucial first step.

Many companies have since adopted hybrid work models. From the perspective of Conway’s Law, this has often made communication challenges worse. Hybrid work can create two distinct communication structures: one for in-office days and another for remote days. This duality can lead to disjointed systems and a lack of cohesion. For some teams, maintaining a single communication structure, even when back in the office, has proven more effective. Meetings continue to happen virtually, and collaboration tools like Teams are still in use, ensuring that communication stays consistent, regardless of location.

In the end, Conway's Law suggests that organizations that let communication evolve organically, without intentional effort, are likely to return to office settings, where passive communication happens naturally—at the coffee pot or in shared spaces. On the other hand, organizations that are intentional about fostering communication in a remote setting will continue to thrive remotely. By observing the structure of communication within your company—whether intentional or organic—you can predict the trajectory of how your systems will evolve and how your organization will adapt in the years ahead.