27 Jun 2015

Agile Organization Structure

Some people mistake my book, "Agile IT Org Design" to be only about org structure. A couple of them even wondered if the book was a 250 page elaboration of Conway’s law. As if Conway’s law sums up everything there is to IT org structure.

Although I address it quite comprehensively, structure is but one aspect of organization design. Eight out of sixteen chapters in the book have almost nothing to do with structure. Only two (Ch 4. Superstructure and Ch 5. Team Design) are 100% about structure. The other chapters cover operational, cultural and political aspects of IT organization design. A re-org that only pays attention to structure is likely to be ineffective.