{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,19]],"date-time":"2025-06-19T04:57:37Z","timestamp":1750309057613,"version":"3.41.0"},"reference-count":20,"publisher":"Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2005,9,1]],"date-time":"2005-09-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1125532800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.acm.org\/publications\/policies\/copyright_policy#Background"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["dl.acm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["SIGSOFT Softw. Eng. Notes"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2005,9]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The risks to the large organization of being able to complete the development of large software intensive systems on time and in budget include not just the defining and maintaining of proper requirements and work processes, but also in the defining and maintaining of the proper organizational work structures. Bureaucratic structures prevalent in large organizations can be inefficient and irrational especially in regards to unplanned surprises, exigencies, contingencies, and the emergent properties that are the normal part of the development and integration of first-of and one-of-a-kind large systems. All large software intensive systems, at their true core, are experiments, and experimentation and bureaucracy have proved to be, over time, destructively antithetical in basic values. Conway's law, first stated in 1968, has by the lights of 2005 provided only a superficial explanation of the antipathy of bureaucracy towards the unknown and risk. The belief that \"[o]rganizations which design systems...are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations\", can be easily refuted by noting that hierarchical organizations have been quite successful in designing and implementing networked systems subsequent to the invention of Ethernet and TCP\/IP. The example provided by Conway was not sufficient by itself to draw the conclusion was made, a common fallacy of cause and effect, but he was certainly on an interesting path of investigation. Large system development failures cannot be prevented soley through improved planning, requirements, processes and software. Improvement must also come from the recognition of the limits of organization, planning and process; the recognition of the basic antipathy between bureaucracy and risk; the recognition of the need for organizational structures that scale yet remain responsive; the recognition of the need for better attitudes towards faults and failures, and the recognition that in order to reduce the risks that are inherent when the technical becomes political, that one must reduce the risks of speaking truth to power. The short article that follows is intended to raise more questions than provide answers, and the references are intended to provide a starting point for further research.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/1095430.1095444","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2005,11,7]],"date-time":"2005-11-07T19:28:32Z","timestamp":1131391712000},"page":"1-3","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["The risks of large organizations in developing complex systems"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"30","author":[{"given":"Robert","family":"Schaefer","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Daniel Webster College"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2005,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_1_1_1","unstructured":"Melvin E. Conway \"How Do Committees Invent\" Datamation 1968 http:\/\/www.melconway.com\/research\/committees.html  Melvin E. 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King \"Learning to Solve the Right Problems: The Case of Nuclear Power in America\" http:\/\/classes.bus.oregonstate.edu\/ba350\/REQUIRED%20READINGS\/A-King.doc"},{"first-page":"533","volume-title":"November\/December 1973","author":"Landau M.","key":"e_1_2_1_7_1"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_8_1","first-page":"148","volume-title":"March\/April","author":"Landau M.","year":"1979"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/973677"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_10_1","unstructured":"Yogesh Malhotra \"Is Knowledge Management Really an Oxymoron?\" http:\/\/www.brint.org\/KMOxymoron.pdf  Yogesh Malhotra \"Is Knowledge Management Really an Oxymoron?\" http:\/\/www.brint.org\/KMOxymoron.pdf"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_11_1","unstructured":"Henry Mintzberg \"A Note on that Dirty Word \"Efficiency\"\" http:\/\/www.vrconline.ca\/english\/resources\/print\/10A-1-8.pdf  Henry Mintzberg \"A Note on that Dirty Word \"Efficiency\"\" http:\/\/www.vrconline.ca\/english\/resources\/print\/10A-1-8.pdf"},{"volume-title":"Modern Times","year":"1976","author":"Morison Elting E.","key":"e_1_2_1_12_1"},{"volume-title":"Computer Related Risks","year":"1995","author":"Neumann Peter G.","key":"e_1_2_1_13_1"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_14_1","unstructured":"Wanda Orlikowski \"Awareness is the First and Critical Thing\" www.dialogonleadership.org\/Orlikowski-1999.html  Wanda Orlikowski \"Awareness is the First and Critical Thing\" www.dialogonleadership.org\/Orlikowski-1999.html"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_15_1","unstructured":"Poppendiek \"Wicked Problems May 2002\" www.poppendiek.com\/wicked.htm  Poppendiek \"Wicked Problems May 2002\" www.poppendiek.com\/wicked.htm"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_16_1","first-page":"155","volume-title":"Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning","author":"Rittel H.","year":"1973"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_17_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1039174.1039196"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_18_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1082983.1083008"},{"key":"e_1_2_1_19_1","unstructured":"Edward Yourdon Death March Prentice Hall 1999   Edward Yourdon Death March Prentice Hall 1999"},{"volume-title":"The Age of the Smart Machine","year":"1988","author":"Zuboff Shoshana","key":"e_1_2_1_20_1"}],"container-title":["ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/1095430.1095444","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1145\/1095430.1095444","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,18]],"date-time":"2025-06-18T22:29:47Z","timestamp":1750285787000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/1095430.1095444"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2005,9]]},"references-count":20,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2005,9]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1145\/1095430.1095444"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/1095430.1095444","relation":{},"ISSN":["0163-5948"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"0163-5948"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2005,9]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2005-09-01","order":2,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}