Team Topologie, the essence you need to know

Team Topologie is a concept related to DevOps and Software Development. The term was first introduced by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais in their book “Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow.”

At its core, Team Topologie is about structuring and interacting with an organization’s teams to enhance software delivery and align IT capabilities with business needs. The aim is to simplify organizational design to speed up the flow of change and reduce cognitive load.

Here are some of the key concepts:

1. Team Types: According to the Team Topologies approach, there are four fundamental team types. Each has specific responsibilities and ways of interacting with other teams:

• Stream-Aligned Team: A team aligned to a flow of work from a segment of the business domain. This team takes end-to-end responsibility for their stream of work, focusing on delivering value to the end-user or customer directly.
• Enabling Team: This team assists other teams in overcoming obstacles or learning new practices and technologies. Their goal is not to provide long-term solutions but rather to upskill other teams so they can solve similar problems independently in the future.
• Complicated-Subsystem Team: A team of specialists that takes care of a complex subsystem that can’t be easily divided. They might offer their services through an API, for example.
• Platform Team: A team that builds and maintains a platform to enable stream-aligned teams to deliver more quickly. The platform simplifies otherwise tricky technology tasks, reduces cognitive load for other teams.

1. Team Interactions: There are three types of interactions between teams: collaboration, X-as-a-Service, and facilitating. Each team type has preferred interaction modes. For instance, platform teams typically offer services, enabling teams provide facilitation, and complicated-subsystem teams might need to collaborate closely with others.
2. Team Cognitive Load: This refers to the total amount of things a team needs to remember or comprehend to get their job done. By limiting this cognitive load, a team can work more effectively.
3. Evolutionary Architecture: The architectural approach needs to evolve along with the team structure and the business needs. That’s why Team Topologies advocates for an “evolutionary” architecture that can adapt and change as required.
4. Fractals and Organizational Patterns: Organizational design should follow simple, repeatable patterns. These patterns can be scaled up or down — like fractals in mathematics — to maintain simplicity and clarity across the organization.
5. Conway’s Law: This principle, which states that an organization’s design will mirror its communication structure, is central to the concept of Team Topologies. Therefore, to improve software delivery, it’s important to improve both the team structures and their communication paths.

Team Topologies is not just about where to place people within an organization; it’s about creating a system that encourages teams to evolve with the needs of the business, reduces cognitive load, and ultimately enhances software delivery performance.

by Jos Postma | www.jospostma.com