Conway's Law
<project, humour> The rule that the organisation of the software and the
organisation of the software team will be congruent; originally stated as "If
you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler".
Melvin Conway, an early proto-hacker, wrote an assembler for the Burroughs 220
called SAVE. The name "SAVE" didn't stand for anything; it was just that you
lost fewer card decks and listings because they all had SAVE written on them.
[Jargon File]
Nearby terms:
Convex Computer Corporation « convex hull « Conway, John
Horton « Conway's Law » Conway's Life » cooC »
cooccurrence matrix
