Conway's law

proper noun

An adage that states that organizations design computer systems that mirror their own communication structure.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

proper noun
  1. computingAn adage that states that organizations design computer systems that mirror their own communication structure.

    Recognizing Conway's Law¶ In the last several years, Mel Conway's 1967 paper “How Do Committees Invent?” has become an almost required topic in presentations about microservices as well as APIs in general.

    2021, Mehdi Medjaoui, Erik Wilde, Ronnie Mitra, Mike Amundsen, Continuous API Management, O'Reilly, →ISBN

Origin

Named after computer programmer Melvin Conway, who introduced the idea in 1967.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Conway's law. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Conway's%20law

MLA

“Conway's law.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Conway's%20law. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Conway's law,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Conway's%20law.

Source: Conway's law on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.