Member Event: NorDevCon 2016 – Come and learn about Conway’s Law

Workshop: An Exploration of Symbiotic Design Practice

When: 10am to 4.45pm, Thursday 25th February, 2016

Where: NorDevCon, The Kings Centre, Kings Street, Norwich, NR1 1PH

How much: £20

Tickets:https://nordevcon2016.eventbrite.co.uk

Decades ago, Melvin Conway coined what is now called Conway’s Law: “organizations which design systems … are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.” Conway’s Law is a deep insight but it is only the tip of the iceberg when we try to understand the interaction between organization and software. We fail to appreciate that we can use team structure, day to day process, and the interface between business and development as levers to affect the quality of design and code. With this perspective we can also see that concerns like technical debt and portfolio management lend themselves to new solutions when we understand software’s sensitivities upon its environment.

In this workshop, we’ll explore the intersection between software and organization through a series of group exercises and discuss ways of putting this understanding into practice.

About Michael

Michael Feathers is the Founder and Director of R7K Research & Conveyance, a company specializing in software and organization design. Prior to forming R7K, Michael was the Chief Scientist of Obtiva and a consultant with Object Mentor International. Over the past 20 years he has consulted with hundreds of organizations, supporting them with general software design issues, process change and code revitalization. A frequent presenter at national and international conferences, Michael is also the author of the book Working Effectively with Legacy Code (Prentice Hall, 2004).