Playing Tetris with Cognitive Load @ Danske Bank, Oct 2023

Do we expect autonomous empowered cross-functional squads to set up their CI/CD tooling and pipelines, automate infra, test and secure *all the things*, and, of course, run and monitor their product live? Oh wait, there’s more: they need to actually understand who their customers are, what they need from the product, what is causing friction, and what is the viability of our product as a net positive for the organization.

Sounds familiar? Congratulations, you’re already playing Tetris with team cognitive load!

Transcript

1. TeamTopologies.com @TeamTopologies Manuel Pais Playing Tetris with Cognitive Load
2. Team Topologies 3 Organizing business and technology teams for fast flow Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais IT Revolution Press, 2019 teamtopologies.com/book
3. “innovative tools and concepts for structuring the next generation digital operating model” Charles T. Betz, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research 4
4. Remote Team Interactions Workbook 5 Using Team Topologies Patterns for Remote Working Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais IT Revolution Press, 2022 teamtopologies.com/workbook
5. 6 Rapid flow of change
6. 7 Rapid feedback from running systems
7. “Great [digital] products emerge from empowered, fully cross-functional teams.” – John Cutler, 2019 9
10. 12 team mission
11. Without a clear & stable mission teams are drifting along constant waves of change 13
12. 14 teamtopologies.com/ish
13. Independent Service Heuristics s 15 github.com/teamtopologies
14. 16 1. Could it make any logical sense to offer this thing "as a service"? 2. Could you imagine this thing branded as a public cloud service (like AvocadoOnline.com 🥑)? 3. Could this thing be managed a viable cloud service in terms of revenue and customers? 4. Could the organisation currently track costs and investment in this thing separately from similar things? 5. Could this thing operate with minimal data from other sources? 6. Could this thing have a small/well-defined set of user types or customers? 7. Could this service effectively be built and operated by a team or a small set of teams? … Independent Service Heuristics s
15. Independent Service Heuristics - Answers s 17 teamtopologies.com/ish
16. Apply ISH for rapid results and alignment across the organisation 18
17. 20 tribe mission
18. Align tribes to value streams Adapted from: soonersaferhappier.com/quick-learn-value-steam-primer
19. Align tribes to value streams Adapted from: soonersaferhappier.com/quick-learn-value-steam-primer
20. “an individual’s social network (meaningful relationships) is typically in the order of 100–200 individuals” - Robin Dunbar 23 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.150292
21. 24 Align tribes to Dunbar’s number
22. 25 Align tribes to Dunbar’s number
23. strong decoupling between tribes * + sufficient decoupling between services * 26 * requires observation and course correction over time
24. 27 cognitive load
25. Each service must be fully owned by a team with sufficient cognitive capacity to build, run and evolve it. 28
27. Team Cognitive Load
28. Team Cognitive Load Architecture Infrastructure Security
29. coding testing deploying security infrastructure operations CI/CD arch & design
30. coding testing deploying security infrastructure operations CI/CD arch & design building the solution right
31. coding testing deploying security infrastructure operations CI/CD arch & design UX cust satisfaction data science product viability QA
32. coding testing deploying security infrastructure operations CI/CD arch & design UX cust satisfaction biz metrics product viability QA building the right solution
33. the team is the unit of delivery
34. high trust teams ~ 5-9 members
36. Architecture Infrastructure Security Team Cognitive Load
37. UX Data Science Team Cognitive Load
38. Product Viability Design Thinking Customer Satisfaction Team Cognitive Load
39. cognitive OVERload
41. Team Cognitive Load 48
42. COGNITIVE LOAD: The total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory - John Sweller 49
43. Intrinsic (skills) Extraneous (environment) Germane (domain focus) 54
44. (Intrinsic) ] Extraneous [ Germane 55
45. Taming Cognitive Load 58 Explicit cognitive load
46. 59 Challenge Cognitive load can’t be measured directly
47. 60 Answer Need to assess the drivers of team cognitive load
48. 61 Answer Team Cognitive Load Drivers 1. Team Characteristics
49. 62 Answer Team Cognitive Load Drivers 1. Team Characteristics 2. Work Characteristics
50. 63 Answer Team Cognitive Load Drivers 1. Team Characteristics 2. Work Characteristics 3. Work Practices & Processes
51. 64 Answer Team Cognitive Load Drivers 1. Team Characteristics 2. Work Characteristics 3. Work Practices & Processes 4. Work Environment & Tools
52. Assess cognitive load drivers 65 github.com/TeamTopologies
53. Coming soon! 66 Team Cognitive Load Assessment Community release in Q4 2023 24 team cognitive load drivers teamtopologies.com/tcla
54. Taming Cognitive Load 67 Explicit cognitive load Team-sized software
55. Limit the size of software services/products to the cognitive load that the team can handle. 68
57. “Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure.” – Mel Conway, 1968 70
59. 73 Feature
60. 74 Feature Feature Feature Feature
61. Taming Cognitive Load 75 Explicit cognitive load Team-sized software Adequate team topologies
62. topology the way in which constituent parts are interrelated or arranged Greek: τοπολογία (τόπος == ‘place’) 76
63. 4 fundamental topologies 77 Stream-aligned team
65. 80 We expect most teams to be (value) stream-aligned with end-to-end ownership (if we want fast flow)
66. Team Cognitive Load
67. 4 fundamental topologies 82 Stream-aligned team Enabling team
68. 83 Enabling teams reduce both the learning curve to acquire capabilities and the need for “shared experts” by having them teach and mentor “on the ground”
69. Case Study 84 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOjdXeGp44E
70. Team Cognitive Load
71. 4 fundamental topologies 88 Stream-aligned team Enabling team Platform team
72. 89 Platform teams provide services that reduce cognitive load and accelerate stream-aligned teams to deliver work with substantial autonomy
73. “A digital platform is a foundation of self-service APIs, tools, services, knowledge and support which are arranged as a compelling internal product.” – Evan Bottcher, 2018 92
74. 95 A platform is a curated experience for its customers
75. ⏳ ⏳ Blocking Non- Blocking
76. Remove barriers to flow: hand-offs, approval gates, manual inspections Replace with self-service APIs, tools, portals, etc. 97
77. ⚠ Compliance mindset shift: Permitting to Enabling 98
78. 105 “Highly evolved firms use a combination of stream-aligned and platform teams as the most effective way to manage cognitive load at scale”
79. Team Cognitive Load
80. 4 fundamental topologies 107 Stream-aligned team Enabling team Platform team Complicated subsystem team
81. 108 Complicated subsystem teams build and evolve part of a system which requires specialized, PhD kind of knowledge
82. Team Cognitive Load
83. 4 fundamental topologies 110 Flow of change
84. 111 Team Interaction Modes Collaboration: 2 teams working together X-as-a-Service: 1 provides, 1 consumes Facilitating: 1 team helps another
85. 112 Team Interaction Modes Collaboration: 2 teams working together X-as-a-Service: 1 provides, 1 consumes Facilitating: 1 team helps another Why, When, How Long
86. 3 core interaction modes 113 Flow of change X-as-a-Service Facilitating Collaboration
87. Taming Cognitive Load 116 Explicit cognitive load Team-sized software Adequate team topologies
88. 118 teamtopologies.com • talks • infographics • key concepts • articles & mini-books • adoption case studies
89. Free Resources 119 teamtopologies.com/learn (infographics, slides, video) teamtopologies.com/examples (Finance, Insurance & many more)
90. Infographics • Getting Started • In a Nutshell 120 teamtopologies.com/infographics
91. academy.teamtopologies.com
92. 122 Copyright © Team Topologies Ltd 2023. All rights reserved. teamtopologies.com