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Beyond the Spotify Model - using Team Topologie...

Beyond the Spotify Model - using Team Topologies for fast flow and organization evolution - DTX Manchester 2024

Organizations worldwide are crippled by slow flow, tangled delivery, and teams waiting on other teams. The cost is $billions per year.

For effective, modern, organizations working with software-enriched services, we need to organize our teams in certain ways to take advantage of technology, human insights, and fast flow. Informed by Conway’s Law, we look to align the team structures to the required software architecture, enabling or restricting communication and collaboration for the best outcomes.

This talk covers the basics of organization design using Team Topologies, exploring a selection of key team types, and how and when to use them in order to make the development and operation of your software systems as effective as possible. The talk is based on the book Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais including first-hand experience helping companies around the world with the design of their technology teams.

Key takeaways:

1. Why using the “Spotify Model” of team design is not enough
2. The four fundamental team topologies needed for modern software delivery
3. The three team interaction modes that enable fast flow and rapid learning
4. How to address Conway’s Law, cognitive load, and team evolution with Team Topologies

Matthew Skelton

May 22, 2024
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  1. Beyond the Spotify model using Team Topologies for fast flow

    and organization evolution Matthew Skelton, Conflux - co-author of Team Topologies Keynote at DTX Manchester | 2024-05-23 K37
  2. Photo goes here Matthew Skelton Founder at Conflux Co-author of

    Team Topologies “Ecosystem engineering” LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthewskelton Mastodon: mastodon.social/@matthewskelton 2
  3. 9 We help you to unblock innovation via fast flow

    and Team Topologies Coaching & consulting | Cohort learning | Community confluxhq.com
  4. 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 10 Over 150k copies sold!
  5. “...innovative tools and concepts for structuring the next generation digital

    operating model” Charles T. Betz, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research 11
  6. topology the way in which constituent parts are interrelated or

    arranged Greek: τοπολογία (τόπος == ‘place’) 12
  7. 14 Philip Fisher-Ogden, Director of Engineering at Netflix: “thanks for

    your insightful articulations of devops topologies. They inspired many discussions and helped us to think about what model Netflix teams could be/are using.” https://twitter.com/philip_pfo/status/999074792123740160
  8. 15 Crystal Hirschorn, Director of Engineering at Condé Nast International

    “Your topological models resonated extremely well on both the Dev and Ops side btw! I like the balanced arguments, e.g. different perspectives, for each pattern.” https://twitter.com/cfhirschorn/status/1103387659890819073
  9. Team Topologies 📗 16 Research over 5 years across multiple

    industry sectors Informed by 50+ peer-reviewed journal articles 30+ client organizations - consulting and training since 2013 with orgs in CN, EU, IN, US, UK, + Book: 12+ case studies from well-known organizations
  10. Team Topologies - since 2019 17 Top 10 ‘Best Product

    Management Books’ (Book Authority) Adopted by 1000s of organizations worldwide: JP Morgan, ClearBank, Fidelity, Docker, Zalando, NatWest Group, USAF, GOV.UK, … Unlocking $10bn+ extra value in organizations around the world annually
  11. 20

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  13. 24 The Spotify model Squad: semi-autonomous delivery team Tribe: family

    of Squads - related work Chapter: line management within a Tribe Guild: cross-Tribe interest/specialist group
  14. 31 The Spotify model helps to Encourage flow of value

    Establish and clarify team responsibilities Promote good kinds of team collaboration Plan and budget for cross-team enablers
  15. “This article is only a snapshot of our current way

    of working - a journey in progress, not a journey completed. By the time you read this, things have already changed.” - Kniberg & Ivarsson 33
  16. 41 Team Topologies helps with Team-first thinking and cognitive load

    Heuristics for Conway’s Law Patterns for team interactions Triggers for change and evolution
  17. 48 Team-first Thinking The team is the means of delivery

    Design for team cognitive load Choose boundaries for team ownership Physical and digital workspace
  18. 50 Conway’s Law Any organization that designs a system (defined

    broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure. — Melvin E. Conway
  19. 55 Conway’s Law Heuristic for ‘natural’ expected design Mirroring in

    tech system + human system Reverse Conway to mitigate worst effects Constraint on solution search space
  20. 62 Team interactions 3 defined Interaction Modes Collaboration: 2 teams

    working together X-as-a-Service: 1 provides, 1 consumes Facilitating: 1 team helps another
  21. 72 Sensing for evolution Not all teams in the org

    look the same Discover, then push to Platform Awkward team interactions are signals Evolve the org with changing ecosystem
  22. How well can the team as a unit “grok” the

    systems they own and develop? Push some things into a Platform? Are skills or capabilities missing? Explicit cognitive load 75
  23. Are there major mismatches between the team interactions and the

    required software / system architecture? What could be easily adjusted? Large Conway mismatches 77
  24. What would change if we adopted the 3 team interaction

    patterns? Collaboration, X-as-a-Service, Facilitating How would teams react & behave? Team Interactions 79
  25. “A TVP is a careful balance between keeping the platform

    small and ensuring that the platform is helping to accelerate and simplify software delivery for teams building on the platform.” (p.101, Team Topologies) 81
  26. How is your Platform defined? What is the thinnest platform

    that could work? What’s needed to run an support it? Thinnest Viable Platform 82
  27. 91 We help you to unblock innovation via fast flow

    and Team Topologies Coaching & consulting | Cohort learning | Community confluxhq.com
  28. thank you confluxhq.com Copyright (c) 2017-2024 Conflux group of companies.

    All Rights Reserved. The name “Conflux” and the filled C device are Registered Trademarks ® in multiple jurisdictions.