# How Do Committees Fail To Invent?

DevFeed: [How Do Committees Fail To Invent?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/how-do-committees-fail-to-invent-26554.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://infrequently.org/2025/08/how-do-committees-fail-to-invent/>)

Author: Alex Russell

Published: 2025-08-11T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Alex Russell](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/alex-russell.md>)

Topics: [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>), [Web platform](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-platform.md>), [W3C](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/w3c.md>)

Tags: [bias](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bias.md>), [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/browsers.md>), [consensus](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/consensus.md>), [development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/development.md>), [engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering.md>), [standards](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/standards.md>), [web-platform](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/web-platform.md>), [webdev](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/webdev.md>)

## AI overview

The article applies Conway's Law to standards development organizations, arguing that a "fifth column" problem can arise when delegates conceal their intentions through objections or silence. It examines how open membership, veto-heavy rules, and poor information can obstruct progress in standards working groups and affect developers' perceptions of standards.

## Source excerpt

Mel Conway's seminal paper "How Do Committees Invent?" (PDF) is commonly paraphrased as Conway's Law: Organizations which design systems are (broadly) constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations. This is deep organisational insight that engineering leaders ignore at their peril, and everyone who delivers code for a living benefits from a (re)read of "The Mythical Man-Month", available at fine retailers everywhere. Conway's Law is generally invoked to describe organisations working to solve well-defined problems, in which everyone is working towards a solution. But what if there are defectors? And what if they can prevent forward progress without paying any price? This problem is rarely analysed for the simple reason that such an organisation would be deranged. But what if that happened regularly? I was reminded of the possibility while chatting with a colleague joining a new (to them) Working Group at the W3C. The most cursed expressions of Conway's Law regularly occur in Standards Development Organisations (SDOs); specifically, when delegates refuse to communicate their true intentions, either through spurious objection or tactical silence. This special case is the fifth column problem. Contents How Does This Happen? Mayfly Half-Lives The Web Platform's Power Structure But Why? Problem Misstatements Closed For Business Survivorship Bias and The Problem of Big, Old Rooms Marketing Gridlock As Thoughtfulness When Is A "Consensus" Not Consensus? Defences Against Fifth Columns Expressed in Conwayist terms, the fifth column problem describes the way organisations mirror the miscommunication patterns of their participants when they fail to deliver designs of any sort. This pathology presents when the goal of the majority is antithetical to a small minority with a veto. Reticence of certain SDO participants to consider important problems is endemic, in part, due to open membership. Unlike corporate environments wh