Conway's Law. Conway's law is an adage named after computer programmer Melvin Conway, who introduced the idea in 1968; it was first dubbed Conway's law by participants at the 1968 National Symposium on Modular Programming.[1] It states that organizations which design systems ... are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations Although sometimes construed as humorous, Conway's law was intended as a valid sociological observation. It is based on the reasoning that in order for two separate software modules to interface correctly, the designers and implementers of each module must communicate with each other. Therefore, the interface structure of a software system will reflect the social structure of the organization(s) that produced it.
Variations[edit] James O. Coplien and Neil B. Supporting evidence[edit] There is supporting evidence of Conway's law that has been published by a team of Harvard Business School researchers. See also[edit] Apple Inc. (company): What is the internal culture like at Apple. Working At Apple. Former employees shed light on Apple's internal corporate culture.
By Neil Hughes Wednesday, July 07, 2010, 11:50 am PT (02:50 pm ET) Former workers of Apple have offered a peek inside the company's secretive corporate culture, with a glimpse at employee mentality, security, and the difference between a project in which Steve Jobs is involved, and one without the chief executive's interest. Purported details about Apple have been shared by some ex-employees who have left the company on Q&A website Quora. As first reported by Silicon Alley Insider, current Facebook employee Chad Little and Mint.com employee Justin Maxwell offered a glimpse of their time spent at Apple. Little claimed that, like most companies, Apple has its fair share of red tape that can frustrate employees. But those issues go away and projects take on a "startup level urgency" when something is given the attention of company co-founder Jobs.
"If you have a project that Steve is not involved in, it will take months of meetings to move things forward," Little wrote. Apple's internal development practices. "Any software that does much of anything is going to have some kind of learning curve associated with it. " Agreed. and I have made it through the learning curve. However, my wife now refuses to use the program because she doesn't understand it. Granted, she is basically saying that it isn't worth her time for the little bit that she intends to use it (plus she has me). "I don't know what version of iTunes you are using but 6.0.1 doesn't have a separate window for search results, everything displays in the main window. I didn't assume this because for Version 4 and 5 the search results had previously always displayed in the main window.
"Instead of getting frustrated when something doesn't work the way you want it to the first time you use it, why not spend a little time on Google learning how it actually works? And I have. "Just because you think that iTunes sucks doesn't mean that Apple's internal development practices sucks I never said that. I am sorry for hijacking this post. Graphing Calculator Story. Apple’s Management Obsessed With Secrecy. Jonathan Ive on The Key to Apple's Success. Posted by: Helen Walters on July 08, 2009 Jonathan Ive isn’t prone to making wild proclamations about design, his boss, Steve Jobs, or Apple, the company at which he’s led the design team since 1996.
Indeed, he’s not really one for speaking in public much at all. So it was with a sense of keen anticipation that a group of 700 or so Londoners descended on the Royal Geographical Society in posh South Kensington to hear Ive in conversation with Sir Christopher Frayling, rector of the Royal College of Art. During the hour-long chat, Ive touched on many themes and topics. The main takeaway for executives looking to try and copy Apple’s success? Don’t. For Apple, he outlined, the end game isn't commercial success. And while Ive was clearly careful not to point fingers or name names, he was critical of companies that continue to lay emphasis on "new" rather than "better," churning out products simply in order to survive, with no thought of the impact of such rampant production.
Top Trends in Innovation Blog Apple Archives. Jonathan Ive on the ethical implications of Apple's business Posted by: Helen Walters on August 11 There's been quite a flurry of excitement in the online media-sphere of late, after entrepreneur, CEO, some time journalist (and BusinessWeek columnist) Jason Calacanis published The Case Against Apple—in Five... Jonathan Ive on The Key to Apple's Success Posted by: Helen Walters on July 08 Jonathan Ive isn't prone to making wild proclamations about design, his boss, Steve Jobs, or Apple, the company at which he's led the design team since 1996. Indeed, he's not... What Apple Learned from Kodak Posted by: Helen Walters on December 05 Currently Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, Bill Buxton writes a regular-ish column for the Innovation channel here at BusinessWeek.
If Apple Goes Mass--Will They Be Known for "Masstige"? Posted by: Reena Jana on June 10 So everyone's been talking, blogging, reading about the new 3G iPhone. Apple's design process Posted by: Helen Walters on March 08. Apple's design process. Interesting presentation at SXSW from Michael Lopp, senior engineering manager at Apple, who tried to assess how Apple “gets” design when so many other companies try and fail.
After describing Apple’s process of delivering consumers with a succession of presents (“really good ideas wrapped up in other really good ideas” — in other words, great software in fabulous hardware in beautiful packaging), he asked the question many have asked in their time: “How the f*ck do you do that?” (South by Southwest is at ease with its panelists speaking earthily.) Then he went into a few details: Pixel Perfect Mockups This, Lopp admitted, causes a huge amount of work and takes an enormous amount of time. But, he added, “it removes all ambiguity.” That might add time up front, but it removes the need to correct mistakes later on. 10 to 3 to 1 Apple designers come up with 10 entirely different mock ups of any new feature. Paired Design Meetings This was really interesting.
Stifling security marks Apple corporate culture. Apple's security culture The level of secrecy in Apple's corporate culture is "super paranoid," say people with experience in the company. The issue has come into particular focus with news of a liver transplant performed on CEO Steve Jobs, which despite its relevance to workers and investors has been kept outside of public knowledge for two months. A senior official, typically said to be more open to talking with the media, has refused to disclose anything to the New York Times. "Just can't do it. Too sensitive," he says. The company is also said to impose intense security barriers on workers handling secret projects, such as multiple badge-triggered security doors, followed by number pads for offices.
Many employees are known to be as surprised as the public at new product announcements, such as that for the original iPod. The motivation for the security, says former Apple marketing adviser Regis McKenna, stems from the era of the original Macintosh. By MacNN Staff. Applepeels. I was hired to go to work at Apple in October of 1984, only a few months after the Macintosh was introduced. My first official day was November 26, 1984. In one of the few moves in those days targeted at saving money, my partner and I did not get to start until after the sales conference that year. We were sure they just did not want to spend the money for another two tickets to Hawaii from Halifax, Nova Scotia. My days at Apple lasted until July of 2004. Today I am down to two Macs and my life has more Windows and Android devices than Apple products.
With the drop in Apple products in our family, I started wondering if the technology in our lives might have been different if Apple had been even more successful particularly outside the consumer world. Back in December on my Applepeels blog, I posted an entry, The Decision That Lost The Desktop For Apple. You could take my reasoning a little further and say that we were all hurt by Apple’s punting on the enterprise market. Applepeels: The Apple Corporate Culture.
Apple's supply chain judged best in world again. 7 June 2010 | Andy Allen A report by AMR Research has named Apple as the company with best supply chain practices in the world for the third year running. AMR praised Apple’s “embedded innovation, networked supply and demand shaping”. It also highlighted the company’s effective use of vertical integration as a strategy, in particular the purchase of chipmaker Intrinsity “acquired by Apple to ‘steal a march’ on competitors looking to enhance the performance of mobile devices”.
In a feature exploring the secret behind Apple's success, SM found the company’s ability to bring together two sides of the supply chain (digital and physical) efficiently and at increasingly low cost is a central plank to its rise to global dominance. Kevin O’Marah and Debra Hofman, the authors of the AMR report, noted that responsibility for the supply chain is moving to board level. The report also noted that there is growing evidence of a link between effective supply chain activities and good financial results. Right to the core. Apple's internal organization [Archive] - AppleInsider. Okay, so the ideas originate high up... someone still needs to take that idea and actually turn it into a working device.
If the device is something new, they can't just use off the shelf parts to put it together (can they?). I am having trouble imagining different groups of people working on independent projects that are ultimately supposed to fit together into a working device. Lets take the original iPod. Someone high up had to come up with the idea for a hard drive based music player... okay fine... now what's the next step? Asthetic design? User interface? The nuts and bolts?