It’s Time to Execute the Inverse-Conway-Maneuver

Perhaps the less obvious path of changing your organization will improve your software architecture.

David Rodenas PhD
5 min readJul 13, 2024
Initiating Inverse-Conway-Maneuver — Prompted and edited by the author.

Imagine spending months redesigning your software architecture only to find that progress stalls at every turn. The problem might not be your code — it could be your company’s structure. This is where the Inverse Conway Maneuver comes into play. In this article, you’ll discover why changing your organization’s structure can lead to significant improvements in your software architecture, making your development process smoother and more effective.

In the world of software development, it’s well known that having the right software architecture is critical for success. More recently, it has become clear that this architecture must evolve and adapt to ongoing changes to ensure continued success. However, sometimes it seems that these changes are resisted, making evolution appear impossible. Despite various initiatives, everything seems to stay the same, and progress in the desired direction remains elusive. We might think that the problem lies with bad developers, poor architects, or even flawed processes and interactions. But could it be that the company’s very architecture is infiltrating down to the lowest levels of the software, hindering or even preventing change?

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David Rodenas PhD

Passionate software engineer & storyteller. Sharing knowledge to advance our skills. Join me on a journey of discovery in the world of software engineering.