TeamTopologies.com
@TeamTopologies
Manuel Pais
Playing
Tetris
with
Cognitive
Load
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Team Topologies
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Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press, 2019
teamtopologies.com/book
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“innovative tools and concepts for
structuring the next generation
digital operating model”
Charles T. Betz,
Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
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Remote Team Interactions
Workbook
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Using Team Topologies
Patterns for Remote Working
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press, 2022
teamtopologies.com/workbook
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Rapid flow of change
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Rapid feedback from
running systems
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“Great [digital] products emerge from
empowered, fully cross-functional
teams.”
– John Cutler, 2019
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team mission
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Without a clear & stable
mission
teams are drifting along
constant waves of change
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teamtopologies.com/ish
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Independent Service Heuristics s
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github.com/teamtopologies
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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
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Independent Service Heuristics - Answers s
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teamtopologies.com/ish
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Apply ISH for rapid results
and alignment
across the organisation
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tribe mission
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Align tribes
to value
streams
Adapted from: soonersaferhappier.com/quick-learn-value-steam-primer
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Align tribes
to value
streams
Adapted from: soonersaferhappier.com/quick-learn-value-steam-primer
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“an individual’s social network
(meaningful relationships)
is typically in the order of
100–200 individuals”
- Robin Dunbar
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https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.150292
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Align tribes
to Dunbar’s
number
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Align tribes
to Dunbar’s
number
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strong decoupling
between tribes *
+ sufficient decoupling
between services *
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* requires observation and course correction over time
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cognitive load
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Each service must be fully
owned by a team with
sufficient cognitive capacity
to build, run and evolve it.
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Team Cognitive Load
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Team Cognitive Load
Architecture
Infrastructure
Security
Limit the size of software
services/products to the
cognitive load that the
team can handle.
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“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
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topology
the way in which constituent parts are
interrelated or arranged
Greek: τοπολογία (τόπος == ‘place’)
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4 fundamental topologies
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Stream-aligned team
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We expect most teams to be
(value) stream-aligned
with end-to-end ownership
(if we want fast flow)
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Team Cognitive Load
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4 fundamental topologies
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Stream-aligned team
Enabling team
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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”
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Case Study
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOjdXeGp44E
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Team Cognitive Load
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4 fundamental topologies
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Stream-aligned team
Enabling team
Platform team
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Platform teams provide services that
reduce cognitive load and accelerate
stream-aligned teams to deliver work
with substantial autonomy
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“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
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A platform is a
curated experience
for its customers
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⏳ ⏳
Blocking
Non-
Blocking
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Remove barriers to flow: hand-offs,
approval gates, manual inspections
Replace with self-service APIs, tools,
portals, etc.
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⚠
Compliance mindset shift:
Permitting to Enabling
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“Highly evolved firms use a
combination of stream-aligned
and platform teams as the
most effective way to
manage cognitive load at scale”
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Team Cognitive Load
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4 fundamental topologies
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Stream-aligned team
Enabling team
Platform team
Complicated subsystem team
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Complicated subsystem teams build
and evolve part of a system which
requires specialized,
PhD kind of knowledge
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Team Cognitive Load
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4 fundamental topologies
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Flow of change
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Team Interaction Modes
Collaboration: 2 teams working together
X-as-a-Service: 1 provides, 1 consumes
Facilitating: 1 team helps another
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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