The top organization has no apparent structure, and though it is productive,
it is not likely to evolve well. The organization on the right has no
well-partitioned structures, burt one can identify logical partitions
within it (Customer, Developer, Management, etc.).
Context:
The organization has been designed through preceding patterns. The project is in early development of the first release of its product. The organization must plan how to evolve itself beyond the product's first release, and eventually into the product's maintenance phase.
Forces:
Even distribution of responsibility is good because it distributes the work load.
Regular structures, such as hierarchies, can easily be grown by adding more people, without destroying the spirit of the original structure.
A regular hierarchical structure does not distribute responsibility evenly.
Solution:
Resulting Context:
The organization will have sub-organization foundations on which to grow.
Design Rationale:
This is empirical from our organization studies. To this point, patterns help ensure a functional, highly productive organization. But work still must be done to allow the organization to grow elegantly. We achieve that end by identifying the roots of sub-organizations in the current organization. If we can find none, the organization may not be able to grow. For example, it is difficult to grow a Chief Programmer Team organization.
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