http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway’s_law
“organizations which design systems … are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structure of these organizations”
A more generalised statement of Conway’s Law is:
“technological systems and political systems mirror each other”
Colloraries:
1) If you try to change the deep structure of technological systems, this will have major political implications. Don’t assume that you can put an information bus or microservices in place as a purely technological fix. The more effective any such change will be, the more of the current political landscape you will be invalidating.
2) More generally, you can’t fix primarily political problems by technological means. If you are getting too far ahead of the political change you wish to effect, you will be pulled back, no matter how good the technology is.
3) You can’t fix primarily technological problems by political means: you can’t make up for the lack of fundamental technology by building coalitions, no matter how well-intentioned everyone is.