How Do Committees Invent?

Melvin Conway's 1968 Datamation paper, republished on his site with a later note, argues that any organization designing a system will produce a design that copies its communication structure. He bases this on a graph-homomorphism argument and anecdotes, such as a five-person COBOL team and a three-person ALGOL team producing five-phase and three-phase compilers. These are illustrations, not measurements, and no data is cited. For builders, the implication is to organize teams around needed communication and keep them small and flexible.