Laws of organizations and projects

These are short restatements of some famous adages and heuristics.

• Conway's law. Product structure reflects the producers' communication structure.
• Gall's law. A viable complex system isn't designed from scratch; it evolves from a viable simple system.
• Goodhart's law. “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” (Marilyn Strathern.)
• Iron law of oligarchy, the. Every organization develops a ruling elite. (Example: “Ex-Valve employee describes ruthless internal politics at 'self-organizing' companies”.)
• Pournelle's iron law of bureaucracy. Bureaucratic organizations become controlled by people working in the interest of the bureaucracy itself.
• Shirky principle, the. “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.” (Kevin Kelly.)

Tags: group dynamics, links, list, politics, work.