Conway's Law
An observation (Melvin Conway, 1967) that organizations tend to produce systems that mirror their communication structures. Applied to robotics software: a team where two developers never talk to each other will tend to produce two packages that do not communicate cleanly. The implication for team leads is that package structure decisions and team communication patterns are coupled; changing one without the other produces friction.
Defined in 2 GAGE programs, which carry 2 distinct definitions of it. The wording above is taught in Foundations of Robotics and Physical AI.
How each discipline defines it
The same term does different work depending on who is using it. These are the definitions as each program teaches them, unedited.
An observation (Melvin Conway, 1967) that organizations tend to produce systems that mirror their communication structures. Applied to robotics software: a team where two developers never talk to each other will tend to produce two packages that do not communicate cleanly. The implication for team leads is that package structure decisions and team communication patterns are coupled; changing one without the other produces friction.
The observation, first published by software architect Melvin Conway in 1968, that organizations tend to design systems whose structure mirrors the organization's own communication structure. In engineering decomposition, this manifests as a risk: splitting a problem along team or staffing lines rather than genuine technical seams tends to recreate the false-independence trap.
Terms it appears with
Not an alphabetical neighbourhood: these are the terms taught in the same lessons, ranked by how often they appear together.