It feels that stream-aligned teams and the fluid teams is a big conflict? And I'm wondering what kind of tradeoffs you've found when working with one or the other?
For example, how do devs build deep domain expertise in fluid teams?
Or if you do TeamToplogies, does it always mean that you might need to rework your architecture so teams can work on value and not just on individual components?
Published: A Cost-Savings Case for Team Topologies
Recently, I was involved in an unusual technology due diligence. We were asked how the technology organisation can save on costs. After some analysis and many interviews, we suggested a Team Topologies approach to organising teams that came with an impressive estimated cost reduction.
📢 I have decided to make the core operation of Team Topologies non-profit. TT authors Manuel Pais and I are committed to the core mission : "...to make work more humane and more effective for everyone ..." and means I will not be able to profit personally from core TT activities. 💵🚫
More details over the coming weeks as changes happen...
I've got exciting news! 🤩 I’m developing an online course on "Effectively Manage Team Cognitive Load." Targeted at managers, senior managers, executives, agile coaches, and software architects. Or anyone responsible to shape org structures, processes or software.
Want to lead a more humane and effective organisation?🎙️Tune in, to the latest alphalist #Podcast featuring Matthew Skelton, co-author of Team Topologies and show host Tobias Schlottke.
Here's what you'll discover:
🌊 Value Flow
🪢 Team Topologies
🛡️ Continuous Stewardship
🧩 Decoupling in Time
Apply these principles to foster adaptive flow-based approaches and solve hard problems with ease.
"The authors also show that the individual productivity improvements stagnate with increasing group size - in other words, above a specific team size (and it is rather small, approx. 10-15 people) almost no additional productivity gains can be observed."
"... just four team types and three modes of interaction can help us model an organization that is optimized for flow of value.
But we must understand that what Team Topologies gives us is a pattern language and not a framework that can be applied unchanged. Patterns always need to be applied specifically for a given context and they provide the needed flexibility. "
Ever wondered when/how to effectively move a task/responsibility outside the team? To a Global/shared Function, a Subject Matter Expert, an external contractor, an Agency, a Team Topologies’ Platform team or a Complicated subsystem team.
📣 AWS Embraces Team Topologies as a Foundational Standard!
Exciting news for DevOps and organizational design enthusiasts! (SO, basically everyone at Team Topologies) AWS has officially integrated the our model into its core standards. Find out more ▶️
🧠 Big mindset change for fast flow: don't PUSH synchronous changes through the system; instead, PULL changes asynchronously working backwards from outcomes.
I am starting to explore words/phrases other than "ownership" to convey a sense of "looking after a thing in a healthy way":
custodian / custodianship
curator / curation
caretaker / caretaking
This is in the context of long-lived software-enriched services (online IT/software services, legal services, accounting services, HR services, etc.) and emphasizing the need for long-term care, not short-term "throw the feature over the fence".
"You mean each value stream should have its own legal/sales/HR... activities not reused across value streams? "
Yes, this is exactly what some organizations do: core business capabilities aligned to and focused on specific value streams or business areas.
The entire of Team Topologies is about thinking where certain capabilities should best sit and the extent to which - and context in which - some capabilities might be reused when we need to go quickly.
Exciting news from the thought leaders in software architecture and design! Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais, the minds behind "Team Topologies," have contributed yet another powerful concept to the tech community: Independent Service Heuristics (ISH).