10 Software Engineering Laws (Gone Wrong)

I love this list by Signs of Triviality so I thought I would ask Perplexity for a few examples.

1. Conway’s Law

“You will ship your org chart.”

Spotify Example: Squads, Tribes, and Microservices

Spotify intentionally designed its organization into Squads, Tribes, Chapters, and Guilds – small, cross-functional, semi-autonomous teams responsible for specific features or functions of the product. This team structure mirrors the company’s modular, microservice-based architecture, where each service is independently developed, deployed, and maintained by the squad that owns it.

2. Brooks’s Law

“Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.”

The Mythical Man-Month

One of the best-documented examples comes directly from Fred Brooks’s own experience managing IBM’s OS/360 project in the 1960s. As the project began to run behind schedule, management added more programmers to speed up progress. Instead, the project suffered further delays due to the ramp-up time required to train new developers and the exponential growth in communication overhead. This experience led Brooks to formulate his law in The Mythical Man-Month.

3. Zawinski’s Law

“Every program attempts to expand until it includes a web server. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.”

A clear modern demonstration of Zawinski’s Law—the idea that “every program attempts to expand until it can read mail; those programs that cannot so expand are replaced by ones that can”

Example: Slack’s Expansion

Slack originally launched as a simple team chat app designed for fast internal communication. Over time, it evolved into a complex work hub by integrating file sharing, video calls, automation workflows, and a marketplace of third-party apps. This expansion gained users but also introduced feature bloat, with critics noting that Slack became less focused and more resource-intensive—an embodiment of Zawinski’s Law at work. The company expanded communication beyond chat, effectively trying to “read mail” in the metaphorical sense.

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