Navigating complexity with Team Topologies: emerging patterns - Conflux

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Navigating complexity with Team Topologies: emerging patterns Matthew Skelton, Conﬂux - co-author of Team Topologies Leading Complexity - Crisp | 26 October 2023 K25

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Photo goes here Matthew Skelton, CEng Founder at Conﬂux Co-author of Team Topologies “Ecosystem Engineering” + Cybernetics, Neuroscience, Music LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthewskelton Mastodon: mastodon.social/@matthewskelton 2

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Team Topologies Organizing business and technology teams for fast ﬂow Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais IT Revolution Press, September 2019 Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book Over 100k copies sold 3

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Why is Team Topologies useful? Constraints in Team Topologies Exercise: ﬁnd boundaries with ISH Reﬂection on operating principles 5

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Team Topologies is the leading approach to organizing business and technology teams for fast ﬂow, providing a practical, step-by‑step, adaptive model for organizational design and team interaction. 6

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7 2013

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8 Epic battles between Dev and Ops

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9 https://blog.matthewskelton.net/2013/10/22/what-team-s tructure-is-right-for-devops-to-ﬂourish/

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10 https://web.devopstopologies.com/

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11 https://web.devopstopologies.com/ Used by Netﬂix, Condé Nast, Accenture, etc. etc.

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Thanks to Gene Kim and IT Revolution Press (and many other inspiring people) 12

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Why is Team Topologies useful? 14

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Team Topologies is way more disruptive and useful than we ever imagined … but 🤷 #sorrynotsorry 15

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Team Topologies provides several things for organizations… 16

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17 Language for dealing with ﬂow, boundaries, architecture, dynamics

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18 Heuristics (clues) for organizing teams and software

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19 Ways for teams to deﬁne expectations + close gaps

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20 A focus on fast ﬂow as a key driver

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21 Deliberate constraints on behaviors

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22 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthewskelton_tea mtopologies-activity-7009449368537726976-biXt “Team Topologies is … a set of constraints to encourage emergent behaviours.”

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[quick overview] 23

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24 Stream-aligned team ➔ Long-lived ➔ End-to-end care and evolution of the service ➔ No hand-oﬀs to other teams ➔ Mix of skills (“cross-functional”) ➔ Small: around 8 people

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25 Stream-aligned team ➔ Long-lived ➔ End-to-end care and evolution of the service ➔ No hand-oﬀs to other teams ➔ Mix of skills (“cross-functional”) ➔ Small: around 8 people Flow of change

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26 Platform grouping

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28 Flow of change

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29 Cash Concept Flow of change

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30 User Need Flow of change

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31 Live service Version control Flow of change

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32 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team

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33 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😢

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34 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😐 Facilitating Enabling team

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35 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😊 Facilitating Enabling team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS

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Platform grouping 36 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration UX

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Platform grouping 37 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Stream-aligned team xN

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Platform grouping 38 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration Stream-aligned team xN ⚠ Team Topologies diagrams are always just “snapshots in time”, never ﬁxed designs

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ﬂow-centric roles 40

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Almost all decisions need to use the twin ‘lenses’ of fast ﬂow and team cognitive load 41

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Team Topologies indicates: Almost ALL roles and teams should be focused on either: 🔀 A ﬂow of change -or- 👐 Supporting ﬂow(s) of change 42

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🔀 A ﬂow of change: ● Software changes to a service/app ● Conﬁg changes to COTS software ● Onboarding a new employee ● Reviewing legal contracts ● Installing A/V equipment 43

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👐 Supporting ﬂow(s) of change: ● An infrastructure platform for cloud services/apps ● A data platform for analytics ● A wiki or How-To guide ● Real-time data for decision-making 44

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45 Continuously ‘untangle’ business concepts

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46 Find and adjust team & system boundaries for ﬂow

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47 Minimize hand-oﬀs

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48 Avoid blocking dependencies

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49 Move some decision-making to teams

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50 Team Topologies exposes any lack of clarity in purpose, conﬂict in priorities, or misalignment of incentives

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Team Topologies outside of IT 51

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Organizations outside IT and software are already using TT 52

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53 https://mobile.twitter.com/amcunningham/status/1517912010599682052 “Let's bring Team Topologies to the whole of the [National Health Service]!”

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54 “the concepts discussed in the book are very much applicable to other working environments and teams [outside software]” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/team-topologies-matthew-skelton-manuel-pais-tara-hopkins/ “Certain activities needed to be provided as a service that employees could easily access and get a quick and accurate result from. On other occasions we worked with a manager in a facilitative way, helping that manager to become better able to manage a situation in the team. In other situations we worked collaboratively with another team to pool resources and problem solve together, coming up with a better solution than either team would have arrived at on their own.”

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Legal services 55

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56 Challenges for legal services Real-world cases span legal specialisms Fee earner lawyer prevents team ownership Per-hour billing encourages busy work Law-as-a-service?

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57 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Client A Individual vs Company

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58 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😊 Facilitating Enabling team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS Cross-border M&A “Fee-earner”

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Platform grouping 59 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration M&A info managed as part of a ﬂow platform Make the XaaS interaction more useful

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Platform grouping 60 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Stream-aligned team xN Teams making supporting workﬂows and checklists, etc.

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[Accountancy] 61

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Clinical care / healthcare 62

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63 Challenges for clinical care Real-world cases span medical specialisms > Pregnant car accident victim with COVID-19 Consistent care over time without handoﬀs Managing team cognitive load

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64 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team COVID-19 complications Malnourished

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65 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😊 Facilitating Enabling team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS X-ray or MRI scan Consultant surgeon

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Platform grouping 66 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration Make the XaaS interaction more useful X-ray or MRI scan managed as part of a ﬂow platform

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Platform grouping 67 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Stream-aligned team xN Teams making supporting workﬂows and checklists, etc. X-ray or MRI scan itself may have “inner” teams

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Case Study NHS Digital - pandemic response software teams working with international healthcare experts used Team Topologies principles for rapid rollout of COVID-19 testing 68 https://axiologik.com/news-and-insights/delivering-digital-services-at-scale-in-a-crisis

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News and media 69

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70 Challenges for news and media Changing consumption of news and media > TikTok, ChatGPT, AI/ML Remove editors from publication critical path Rapidly oﬀer new digital products & tech

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Platform grouping 71 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS Facilitating Enabling team Editors help to build capability in publication teams Editorial Editors help to deﬁne auto- approval systems

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Platform grouping 72 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration Shape the content boundaries a data structures Content platform provides composable media consumable by … Product …an ecosystem of digital products

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Education curriculum design 73

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74 Challenges for education design Technology changing the relevance of ideas > ChatGPT for essay questions Long cycles (course description as ‘contract’) Avoid ‘big batch’ validation by committee

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Platform grouping 75 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration Discuss ruleset for auto- approval Chemistry Computer ethics

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HR/People 76

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77 Challenges for HR / people mgt Rigidity in people placement prevents agility > 7 months to move someone to new dept Individual bonuses work against teamwork Conway’s Law

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Platform grouping 78 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team XaaS HR as a platform with internal “customers” Onboarding Move department XaaS XaaS

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Venue services (e.g. audiovisual equipment) 79

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80 Challenges for venue services Rapid deployment at scale Courtrooms, music venues Testing and validation

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The team-based operating system 81

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82 TeamForm teamform.co

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83 TeamOS teamos.is Disclosure: Matthew Skelton has invested personally in the company behind TeamOS

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WTF is going on?! 85

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86 Time for some reverse engineering!

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87 legal services clinical care / healthcare news & media accounting education design HR/people OS ?

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88 POLL pollev.com/matthewskelton410 Why might Team Topologies be useful across such diﬀerent areas as IT/software, legal, healthcare, education, etc. ? What is the common "thing"?

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knowledge work 90

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language 91

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interactions 92

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ownership 93

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boundaries 94

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cognitive load 95

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ﬂow 96

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97 language interactions boundaries ownership cognitive load ﬂow

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Hypothesis: Team Topologies provides vital language, patterns, and constraints for almost all knowledge work situations in the context of fast ﬂow and team ownership. 98

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Constraints in Team Topologies 99

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Team Topologies is a set of constraints to encourage emergent behaviours for fast ﬂow 100 (Matthew Skelton)

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Each team type (or grouping) has speciﬁc expected behaviors 102

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Each team type (or grouping) has a speciﬁc relation to ﬂow and team cognitive load 103

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The constraints on interactions provide signals to tell us when boundaries are not good for fast ﬂow 105

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The constraints on interactions provide signals to tell us about intent/mission, capabilities, skills, strategy, and lots more… 106

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TT principle #3 107 fast ﬂow

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Organizing for fast ﬂow means we are happy with: duplication, (a few) diﬀerent versions, async + eventual consistency, ‘internal marketplace’, etc. 108

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TT principle #4 109 team cognitive load

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Using team cognitive load as a key architectural and design principle means we have a humane, compassionate, and realistic workplace 110

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TT principle #5 111 thinnest viable platform (TVP)

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TVP avoids ‘platform bloat’ by focusing on enhancing ﬂow and reducing team cognitive load - rather than technology 112

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TT principle #6 113 empower teams to adjust boundaries to enhance ﬂow

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Empowering teams to adjust boundaries for ﬂow uses local knowledge for regular incremental gains, avoiding a dreaded ‘Re-org’ every 5 years 114

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Techniques from the Team Topologies community 115

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116 Independent Service Heuristics (ISH)

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117 “The Independent Service Heuristics (ISH) are rules-of-thumb (clues) for identifying candidate value streams and domain boundaries by seeing if they could be run as a separate SaaS/cloud product.” https://teamtopologies.com/ish

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118 User Needs Mapping (UNM)

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119 “User Needs Mapping [is] the ﬁrst 4 steps of the Wardley Mapping process … for identifying potential team [and service] boundary” https://teamtopologies.com/unm

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120 Team Interaction Modeling (TIM)

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121 “[Team Interaction Modeling helps] to describe how to re-organize … teams and their interactions to achieve better ﬂow and deliver value faster.” https://teamtopologies.com/tim

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Exercise: ﬁnd boundaries with ISH 122

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Miro for ISH group exercise : https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNWDi_sg=/?m oveToWidget=3458764567911802641&cot=14 123

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ISH principles 124

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ISH principle #1 125 Flow-friendly boundaries

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ISH principle #2 128 Business-friendly language

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ISH principle #3 130 Promote group discussion and learning

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ISH principle #4 132 Rapid results needed

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What are these ISH questions actually doing? 134

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viability 135

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existing SaaS 136

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decoupled? 137

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outsource-able 138

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use biz expertise 139

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hint at Haier 140

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“fractalization” 141

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navigate complexity 142

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Case Study North-American ecommerce market leader Health-related industry Regulatory obstacles Ambitious growth 143

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Case Study Execs: on-board but unrealistic 144 ~ “When I was building ecommerce sites 20 years ago, it was much quicker and simpler … The engineers obsess over details…”

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Case Study Execs: on-board but unrealistic 145 ~ “We want to see results in a few hours … How hard can it be to ﬁnd some team boundaries?”

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Case Study Our approach: visual “heat-map” 146 Immediate sense of consensus or ambiguity. Identify areas for splitting oﬀ or further investigation.

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Case Study “I really like using the ISH as a rule of thumb for where we draw high level boundaries w/in the org.” – Head of Strategy 147

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Case Study “... this is how we can build teams that are as independent as possible while maintaining laser like focus on outcomes …” – Head of Strategy 148

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We used Independent Service Heuristics to help people realize what is involved in ﬁnding good boundaries for fast ﬂow 149

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Case Study Large retailer in South-East Asia Diﬀerentiating via digital services 150

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Case Study Wide spectrum of roles participating 151 ● Engineering directors ● Engineers ● Head of SRE (reliability) ● Product directors - physical goods ● Product directors - digital services ● CTO ● Warehouse manager

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Case Study ISH bridged physical and digital product needs 152 checkout ﬂow, High Net Worth customers, order picking, returns, shipping & fulﬁlment, warehouse management, …

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Case Study Our approach: visual “heat-map” 153

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Case Study “The framework and shared language [of] ISH … was transformational to the discussions … about our organisation and team structure.” – Head of Product 154

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Case Study “Thanks to the Team Topologies and ISH framework our team structure is more autonomous, meaningful, and productive.” – Head of Product 155

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Biz and product people often have an intuitive lightbulb moment 💡 with ISH and become enthusiastic 156

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Takeaway points - ISH 157

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Going through the ISH heuristics raised important topics that focusing on the domain only didn’t surface 159

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People would often mention heuristics in meetings - they started to become ingrained in day-to-day thinking 160

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We did design with a diverse group and didn’t need to introduce much theory or explain weird terminology 161

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ISH addresses many dimensions for ﬂow-friendly boundaries: viability, (de)coupling, existing SaaS, outsource-able, Haier-style micro enterprises, … 165

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Independent Service Heuristics (ISH) is a pragmatic, accessible sense-making technique based on Team Topologies principles 167

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Try the Independent Service Heuristics (ISH): teamtopologies.com/ish 168

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Reﬂection on operating principles 169

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“Which of these things are challenging for you or your organization, and why?” 170

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Miro for group reﬂection: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNWDi_sg=/?m oveToWidget=3458764568041818171&cot=14 171

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Operating principles 172

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173 Intentional interactions 🔁

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174 Team Cognitive Load as a design constraint 🧠

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175 Diﬀuse learning 🎓

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176 Use humans for sense-making 󰰁

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177 Trust boundaries exist ⭕

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178 Global Optimum not possible 📉

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179 "Externalizable APIs" 🔌

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180 Loose coupling 🔗

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181 Clear ownership boundaries 🚧

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182 “The work is delivered in many small changes that are uncoordinated to enable ﬂow. … Management’s job is to provide context, prioritization and to coordinate across teams. Lending resources if needed across teams to unblock things. … It works well within a high trust culture.” Adrian Cockcroft https://mastodon.social/@adrianco/111174832280576410 Technology strategy advisor, Partner at OrionX.net (ex Amazon Sustainability, AWS, Battery Ventures, Netﬂix, eBay, Sun Microsystems, CCL)

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Desynchronous 183

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184 Avoid temporal dependencies

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185 Imagine each team MUST work with what's actually available already, as if internal teams were external providers, rather than creating time-based dependencies on other teams.

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186 1. 🕑 No team is allowed to *force* or coerce another team to change an API or service or module within a particular timescale. 2. 🤝 No more than two teams may work in a synchronized way (with synchronized changes) in the same timescale. 3. 💰 The value of an underlying API or service or module increases as more APIs or services or modules depend on that thing at runtime.

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187 ➡ desynchronous.com

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Why is Team Topologies useful? Constraints in Team Topologies Exercise: ﬁnd boundaries with ISH Reﬂection on operating principles 188

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Hypothesis #1: Team Topologies provides vital language, patterns, and constraints for almost all knowledge work situations in the context of fast ﬂow and team ownership. 189

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Hypothesis #2: Team Topologies helps organizations to navigate complexity in knowledge work situations by helping to consider viability, scaling, trust, information ﬂow, human factors, intent and purpose. 190

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191 What’s your perspective? Which aspects resonate? Which things feel incorrect?

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192 expert-led group learning for adopting fast ﬂow and Team Topologies conﬂuxhq.com