Business and Technical Agility with Team Topologies - DevOps Manchester - 2021-09-15

Organizations that do not adapt rapidly to the modern, highly-changeable business environment are failing, and failing in large numbers. Increased regulation, pressures from climate change, shifting of energy sources, digitalization, and (recently) the COVID-19 pandemic are all driving a need for business agility in organizations of all sizes.

In this talk, we’ll explore how the patterns and principles from Team Topologies promote true business agility through a rapid flow of software change, fast feedback from running systems, a strong drive for loose coupling, and an awareness of sociotechnical mirroring. Combined with a product mindset and techniques from Domain-driven Design, the Team Topologies approach is helping organizations around the world to adapt to the “new normal” and achieve true business agility.

Matthew Skelton, co-author of Team Topologies, shares insights from organizations in several different industry sectors including banking, financial services, insurance, retail, and leisure.

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From a talk at DevOps Manchester meetup group on 15 Sept 2021

Transcript

1. TeamTopologies.com
   @TeamTopologies
   Business and Technical Agility
   with Team Topologies
   Matthew Skelton
   co-author of Team Topologies
   @matthewpskelton
   DevOps Manchester meetup - 15 Sept 2021
   

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2. 2
   Manuel Pais
   Independent IT organizational
   consultant and trainer
   Ex-dev, ex-build manager,
   ex-tester, ex-QA lead
   Twitter: @manupaisable
   LinkedIn: manuelpais
   Matthew Skelton
   Founder at Conflux
   Experience as: software developer,
   technical director, change enabler,
   conference organizer...
   Twitter: @matthewpskelton
   LinkedIn: matthewskelton
   

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3. Team Topologies
   3
   Organizing business and
   technology teams for fast flow
   Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
   IT Revolution Press, 2019
   teamtopologies.com/book
   

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4. “innovative tools and concepts for
   structuring the next generation
   digital operating model”
   Charles T. Betz,
   Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
   4
   

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5. 5
   What is business agility?
   Being agile, not doing ‘Agile’
   Valuable: product mindset
   Team Topologies examples
   

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6. How does Team Topologies
   help with business &
   technical agility?
   6
   

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7. Team Topologies
   encourages decoupling of
   business concepts to help
   make the organization
   more responsive
   

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8. Team Topologies patterns
   help to turn blocking
   compliance checks into
   self-service, flow-aligned,
   API-driven checks
   

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9. Team Topologies is partly a
   sense-making approach to
   help organizations gain
   situational awareness and
   therefore agility
   

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10. Team Topologies helps the
    organization to focus
    tightly on its core mission
    via streams and limiting
    team cognitive load
    

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11. 11
    What is business agility?
    Being agile, not doing ‘Agile’
    Valuable: product mindset
    Team Topologies examples
    

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12. What is
    business agility?
    12
    

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13. Business Agility: the ability
    to respond rapidly* to
    changing internal and
    external conditions (* in hours)
    

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14. 14
    Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash
    Remote-first
    

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15. 15
    Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash
    Speed of change:
    technology, climate,
    geopolitical
    

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16. 16
    Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash
    Increased
    global and local
    competition
    

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17. digital
    

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18. “Digital”: 1
    18
    Rapidly-developed
    services accessed via
    personal compute
    devices
    

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19. “Digital”: 2
    19
    Rich telemetry for
    existing processes
    provided via software
    and sensors
    

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20. “Digital”: 3
    20
    Highly effective ways of
    working discovered &
    evolved through 1 and 2
    

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21. Questions to answer
    How would we optimize for
    a fast flow of change?
    

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22. Questions to answer
    How would we make sure
    we focus on user needs?
    

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23. Questions to answer
    How would we produce the
    right thing in the right way
    at the right time?
    

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24. Questions to answer
    How would we easily
    ‘course-correct’ when we
    need to adjust?
    

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25. Questions to answer
    How would we maximize our
    chances of finding new
    opportunities for innovation?
    

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26. 26
    What is business agility?
    Being agile, not doing ‘Agile’
    Valuable: product mindset
    Team Topologies examples
    

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27. Being agile,
    not doing ‘Agile’
    

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28. 28
    State of DevOps reports
    2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
    Annual survey of 1000-5000 IT
    professionals worldwide using
    rigorous statistical methods
    2020 2021
    

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29. 29
    State of DevOps 2019
    Analysis from responses of
    over 31,000 IT professionals
    worldwide over 6 years
    “an independent view into the
    practices and capabilities that
    drive high performance”
    + “Four Key Metrics”
    

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30. 30
    State of DevOps 2019
    “The use of cloud… is
    predictive of software delivery
    performance and availability.”
    “High performers favor
    strategies that create
    community structures at both
    low and high levels in the
    organization...”
    

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31. 31
    State of DevOps 2019
    “Heavyweight change approval
    processes, such as change
    approval boards, negatively
    impact speed and stability. In
    contrast, having a clearly
    understood process for
    changes drives speed and
    stability, as well as reductions
    in burnout.”
    

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32. 32
    State of DevOps 2019
    Key technical practices
    ● Lightweight change process
    ● Real DR testing
    ● Maintainable code
    ● Loosely-coupled systems
    ● Monitoring
    ● Trunk-based development
    ● Deployment automation
    

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33. Accelerate
    Building and Scaling High Performing
    Technology Organizations
    Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim
    IT Revolution Press, 2018
    Order via stores worldwide:
    https://itrevolution.com/book/accelerate/
    33
    

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34. 34
    4 key metrics: ‘Accelerate’
    lead time
    deployment frequency
    Mean Time To Restore
    change fail percentage
    

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35. 35
    State of DevOps 2021
    “...principles and
    patterns from Team
    Topologies are helping
    organisations in every
    sector and geography
    become more
    high-performing.”
    https://puppet.com/resources/report/2021-state-of-devops-report/
    

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36. 36
    Fast feedback via
    deployment pipelines
    

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37. 37
    Good technical
    practices (TDD, …)
    

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38. 38
    Team ownership of
    software & services
    

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39. 39
    Configuration in
    version control (Git)
    

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40. 40
    Cloud-native:
    transparent in
    operation
    

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41. 41
    Cloud-native:
    designed for
    automation
    

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42. 42
    Continuous
    testing
    performance
    scanning
    deployment
    monitoring
    right-sizing
    integration
    

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43. 43
    Re-aligned
    architecture
    

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44. 44
    Domain-driven design
    (DDD)
    

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45. 45
    Domain-driven design
    (DDD)
    Untangle business concepts for
    faster flow
    

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46. 46
    Wardley Maps
    

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47. 47
    Wardley Maps
    Increase situational awareness
    and apply the right techniques -
    custom/product/utility
    

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48. 48
    Team Topologies
    

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49. 49
    Team Topologies
    Fast flow, rapid feedback, team
    interactions, org evolution, team
    cognitive load, ...
    

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50. 50
    Rapid flow of change
    

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51. 51
    Rapid feedback from
    running systems
    

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52. 52
    Handovers kill flow
    

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53. View Slide

54. View Slide

55. View Slide

56. 56
    Flow of change
    

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57. 🔍
    Track dependencies and
    separate as “blocking” vs
    “non-blocking”
    57
    

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58. ⏳ ⏳
    Blocking
    Non-
    Blocking
    

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59. Remove barriers to flow:
    hand-offs, approval gates,
    manual inspections
    Replace with self-service APIs
    59
    

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60. ⚠
    Compliance mindset shift:
    Permitting to Enabling
    60
    

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61. View Slide

62. “What would be needed for us to be
    compliant with security/finance/PII
    rules with multiple, decoupled, rapid
    flows of change?”
    (Self-service APIs)
    Scaled Expertise
    62
    

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63. Compliance
    as Code
    (API)
    63
    Flow of change
    Domain
    experts as
    Enabling
    team for
    compliance /
    governance
    

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64. 64
    What is business agility?
    Being agile, not doing ‘Agile’
    Valuable: product mindset
    Team Topologies examples
    

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65. The value of a
    product mindset
    

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66. Product:
    Holistic User Experience
    Functionality + Design + Monetization + Content
    – Marty Cagan, 2010
    66
    Source: https://svpg.com/defining-product/
    

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67. View Slide

68. 68
    A product is optional to
    use - no-one is forced to
    use the product
    

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69. View Slide

70. 70
    A product is carefully
    designed and curated
    

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71. View Slide

72. 72
    A product simplifies
    something for users
    

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73. View Slide

74. 74
    A product evolves to take
    advantage of technology
    changes
    

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75. A strong focus on
    user needs drives
    good software
    #UX
    

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76. The software should
    ‘get out of the way’ -
    design for usability
    

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77. ⚠
    Product Management
    for internal platforms
    77
    

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79. 79
    A platform is optional to
    use - no team is forced to
    use the platform
    

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80. Platforms must advocate for their
    platform product and “market” it to
    internal teams
    (User Personas, UX, talking...)
    Internal Marketing
    80
    

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81. 81
    A platform is a curated
    experience for engineers
    (the customers of the
    platform).
    

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82. 82
    What is business agility?
    Being agile, not doing ‘Agile’
    Valuable: product mindset
    Team Topologies examples
    

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83. Team Topologies
    examples
    

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84. Case studies in the TT book
    84
    

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85. 85
    ...
    

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86. Sept 2021:
    24 months since
    publication of TT
    Photo by noor Younis on Unsplash 86
    

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87. Industry examples on the
    TT website
    87
    

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88. View Slide

89. Organizations that
    Matthew and Manuel have
    worked with since 2019...
    89
    

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90. A large European banking group
    A major cloud technology company
    GOV: Brazil, Canada, Norway, UK, US
    Several major telecoms companies
    A scale-up in Open Banking
    An aerospace laboratory
    Healthcare providers
    Several mortgage companies
    90
    

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91. Case Study
    91
    

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92. ● Founded 2005
    ● 70 stores in the UK
    ● £260m revenue
    ● 2500 employees
    ● 2019: changes to make IT
    more responsive
    92
    

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93. High fragmentation of work and focus
    93
    Jan
    2019
    

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94. Identify boundaries - business domain
    94
    m
    id-2019
    

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95. Team Topologies at DOES London 2019
    95
    Jun
    2019
    

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96. Team Topologies for Product Managers
    96
    Jun
    2019
    “The Product Managers from each team took
    special interest in the team interaction types as
    it helped them to have useful, directed
    conversations about upcoming work, they could
    essentially fact-check their different roadmaps
    and make sure that the interactions required
    were lined up in advance. “
    -- Andy Norton,
    Software Development Manager, Footasylum
    

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97. Align to Team Topologies concepts
    97
    Aug
    2019
    

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98. Combine with Wardley Mapping
    98
    Jan
    2020
    

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99. Focus on bounded contexts in Platform
    99
    Feb
    2020
    

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100. Adopt the Thinnest Viable Platform
     100
     Feb
     2020
     Static data fine
     to begin with:
     shops rarely
     move!
     

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101. Clarity of purpose from team types
     101
     Feb
     2020
     

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102. Concepts
     ● Stream-aligned (business domain)
     ● Thinnest Viable Platform
     ● Evolving teams and interactions
     ● Combine with Wardley Mapping
     102
     teamtopologies.com/examples
     

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103. ● Product Mgt superpowers
     ● Effective comms during COVID-19
     ● Responsive, autonomous teams
     Results
     103
     teamtopologies.com/examples
     

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104. “the interaction modes defined
     by Team Topologies gave us real
     insight into how we could
     maintain effective practices,
     and also cross-team
     collaboration.“
     -- Andy Norton,
     Software Development Manager,
     Footasylum
     104
     

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105. Thanks to:
     Paul Martin
     IT Director, Footasylum
     Andy Norton
     Software Development
     Manager, Footasylum
     105
     

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106. Case Study
     106
     

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107. ● UK's leading comparison
     and switching service
     ● Founded in 2000
     ● ~250 staff, £140m+ revenue
     ● > 2010: Autonomous teams
     ● > 2017: Platformization
     107
     

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108. Autonomous stream-aligned teams
     108
     2015
     ...
     

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109. 109
     Low-level AWS service calls before platform adoption
     2015-2016: direct AWS API calls
     

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110. 110
     Low-level AWS service calls before platform adoption
     2015-2016: direct AWS API calls
     🤯
     

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111. “people were spending more
     time having to interact with
     relatively low-level services thus
     spending their time on relatively
     low-value decisions”
     Paul Ingles, CTO at RVU / Uswitch
     111
     

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112. 112
     2017
     Infra platform
     started with few
     services
     First customer
     (centralized
     logging, metrics,
     auto scaling)
     

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113. 113
     2017
     Early platform (first customer)
     

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114. 114
     2017
     Infra platform
     started with few
     services
     First customer
     (centralized
     logging, metrics,
     auto scaling)
     2018
     Started using SLAs
     and SLOs, clarifying
     reliability/latency/etc
     Growing traffic in
     platform vs AWS
     

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115. 115
     Low-level AWS service calls since platform adoption
     2015-2018: direct AWS API calls
     

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116. 116
     2019
     Addressed critical
     cross-functional
     needs (GDPR,
     security, alerts +
     SLOs as a service)
     Adoption by HMRT
     (Highest Maturity
     & Revenue Team)
     2017
     Infra platform
     started with few
     services
     First customer
     (centralized
     logging, metrics,
     auto scaling)
     2018
     Started using SLAs
     and SLOs, clarifying
     reliability/latency/etc
     Growing traffic in
     platform vs AWS
     

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117. 117
     Measure and demonstrate
     2019
     

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118. 118
     2019
     Addressed critical
     cross-functional
     needs (GDPR,
     security, alerts +
     SLOs as a service)
     Adoption by HMRT
     (Highest Maturity
     & Revenue Team)
     2017
     Infra platform
     started with few
     services
     First customer
     (centralized
     logging, metrics,
     auto scaling)
     2018
     Started using SLAs
     and SLOs, clarifying
     reliability/latency/etc
     Growing traffic in
     platform vs AWS
     

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119. 119
     delivery metrics
     (Accelerate metrics for platform services)
     Platform Metrics
     

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120. 120
     delivery metrics
     (Accelerate metrics for platform services)
     user satisfaction metrics
     (Accelerate metrics for business services, NPS, etc)
     adoption & engagement metrics
     (% teams onboard, per platform and per service)
     reliability metrics
     (SLOs, latency, #Incidents, etc)
     Platform Metrics
     

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121. 121
     Deploys per person per week
     2015-2017 - growth of ???
     

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122. 122
     ● hard to understand
     ● limited use case support
     ● low level abstractions
     ● insufficient reliability/stability
     ● ...
     Platform Adoption Cost
     

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123. View Slide

124. infoq.com/articles/kubernetes-successful-adoption-foundation
     

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125. 125
     2020
     Topologies & interaction modes
     

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126. “we want platform teams to provide
     superlinear impact but with
     sublinear growth in their work”
     Paul Ingles, CTO at RVU / Uswitch
     126
     

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127. 127
     2020
     Context-specific platform
     

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128. “Engineering principles guided the
     way we organise teams:
     loosely-coupled and highly
     cohesive. Team Topologies is great
     for tying a lot of those ideas
     together, and most importantly
     giving it some language.“
     Paul Ingles, CTO at RVU / Uswitch
     128
     

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129. Concepts
     ● Platforms to reduce cognitive load
     ● Platform as a product / MVP
     ● Discover good boundaries & APIs
     ● Clear team interaction modes
     129
     

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130. Results
     ● “Curated” platform experience
     ● Reduced complexity for teams
     ● Addressed cross-team needs
     130
     

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131. Results
     ● From autonomy to self-sufficiency
     ● Patterns applied beyond IT
     ● Balancing fast flow with reliability
     131
     teamtopologies.com/examples
     

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132. Thanks to:
     Paul Ingles
     Chief Technology Officer
     RVU / Uswitch
     Tom Booth
     Head of Infrastructure & Security
     RVU / Uswitch
     132
     

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133. View Slide

134. 134
     What is business agility?
     Being agile, not doing ‘Agile’
     Valuable: product mindset
     Team Topologies examples
     

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135. Respond rapidly to
     changing external and
     internal conditions
     

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136. Situational awareness,
     clarity of business purpose,
     good technical practices,
     localised decisions
     

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137. Strong focus on user needs
     and User Experience (UX),
     clear costs, viability,
     mission, ...
     

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138. Real-world examples
     

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139. How does Team Topologies
     help with business and
     technical agility?
     139
     

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140. Team Topologies
     encourages decoupling of
     business concepts to help
     make the organization
     more responsive
     

     View Slide

141. Team Topologies patterns
     help to turn blocking
     compliance checks into
     self-service, flow-aligned,
     API-driven checks
     

     View Slide

142. Team Topologies is partly a
     sense-making approach to
     help organizations gain
     situational awareness and
     therefore agility
     

     View Slide

143. Team Topologies helps the
     organization to focus
     tightly on its core mission
     via streams and limiting
     team cognitive load
     

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144. What’s next?
     144
     

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145. Workbook
     coming soon...
     Team Topologies
     for Remote Teams
     145
     for Remote
     Teams
     Resources: teamtopologies.com/remote-first
     FREE
     

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146. Free Resources
     146
     teamtopologies.com/resources
     (links, slides, video)
     teamtopologies.com/tools
     (templates, assessments, etc)
     

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147. Infographics
     ● Getting Started
     ● In a Nutshell
     147
     teamtopologies.com/infographics
     

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148. academy.teamtopologies.com
     

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149. TeamTopologies.com
     @TeamTopologies
     Team Topologies
     Partner Program
     🤝
     partners@teamtopologies.com
     

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150. 150
     🠊 teamtopologies.com/shop
     

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151. TeamTopologies.com
     @TeamTopologies
     Feedback:
     info@teamtopologies.com
     @TeamTopologies
     

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152. Remote-
     Friendly
     Training
     teamtopologies.com/training
     152
     

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153. TeamTopologies.com
     @TeamTopologies
     Sign up for news and tips:
     TeamTopologies.com
     

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154. 154
     Manuel Pais
     FlowOnRails
     Twitter: @manupaisable
     LinkedIn: manuelpais
     Matthew Skelton
     Conflux
     Twitter: @matthewpskelton
     LinkedIn: matthewskelton
     Copyright © Conflux Digital Ltd and FlowOnRails 2018-2021. All rights reserved.
     teamtopologies.com
     

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