Policy and Governance as System Constraints

This chapter applies the architectural vocabulary of control systems theory to reframe policy and governance as constraint mechanics within software delivery. While software delivery environments are discrete, distributed, and socio-technical rather than continuous physical plants, the control system model offers a productive lens for reasoning about how constraints shape decisions and bound change application. Under this framing, governance is treated not as a peripheral or retrospective activity but as something structurally woven into the processes through which decisions are made and changes are carried out.