December 16, 2014 at 08:45PM
"Either [the designer] struggles to reduce the system to comprehensibility and wins, or else he loses control of it." - Conway #readingToday  

It is a natural temptation of the initial designer -- the one whose preliminary design concepts influence the organization of the design effort -- to delegate tasks when the apparent complexity of the system approaches his limits of comprehension. This is the turning point in the course of the design. Either he struggles to reduce the system to comprehensibility and wins, or else he loses control of it. The outcome is almost predictable if there is schedule pressure and a budget to be managed.

Author's note 33 years after publication: Perhaps this paper's most remarkable feature is that it made it to publication with its thesis statement in the third-last paragraph. To save you the trouble of wading through 45 paragraphs to find the thesis, I'll give it to you now: Any organization ...