Politecture

Aaron Hanks gets credit for coining this term.

Ever heard the old saw that says that software reflects the organizational structure of the team that writes it?  That begs the question: which came first?  The Architecture of the app (to which the organization fit itself) or the organization (to which the design was contorted to fit within).  Usually, the team already exists and the architecture has to fit the team.

Politecture - A software architecture that exhibits the effects of non-functional constraints placed or enforced by the political needs of the software development or IT organization that describes, manages, codes or maintains the resulting system.

   (term by Aaron Hanks.  definition by Nick Malik)