Navigating complexity with Team Topologies: emerging patterns - Conflux

Since the book Team Topologies was published in 2019, it has gained widespread adoption within the software/IT sector as the “go-to” reference for organizing business and technology teams for fast flow. Organizations of all sizes have found that the language, patterns, practices, ideas, and deliberate constraints of Team Topologies (TT) has helped them to move to a more humane, flow-oriented approach to building and running software-enriched services.

But can industry sectors outside software and IT also benefit from TT ideas and practices? And how does TT help to navigate complexity?

In this session, Matthew Skelton (co-author of the book Team Topologies) explores how organizations in many sectors have begun to use the TT patterns to help with team-based knowledge work of all kinds. We explore the use of TT in sectors including: legal services, accountancy, clinical care in hospitals, COVID-19 emergency response, media and advertising, HR/People, higher education, and venue services (audio-visual equipment).

New tools such as TeamOS and TeamForm are also emerging in the market that explicitly use the TT principles to help organizations design and evolve the teams and dynamics for fast flow. These tools are beginning to codify some of the principles from TT as operating primitives for digital-first organizations, addressing complexity through the use of digital telemetry and suggestions for change.

Furthermore, we look at the three ‘team interaction modes’ outlined in the TT book (Collaboration, X-as-a-Service, and Facilitating) and the dynamics that emerge from the use of these interaction modes as part of the daily activities of an organization using TT patterns effectively. The deliberate constraints in TT (four team types and three team interaction modes) together provide a language for navigating complexity, helping the organization to sense its internal and external environment.

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From a masterclass delivered as part of the Leading Complexity 2023 series by Crisp - https://leadingcomplexity.com/speakers/matthew-skelton/

Transcript

1. Navigating complexity with Team Topologies: emerging patterns Matthew Skelton, Conflux - co-author of Team Topologies Leading Complexity - Crisp | 26 October 2023 K25
2. 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
3. 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
5. Why is Team Topologies useful? Constraints in Team Topologies Exercise: find boundaries with ISH Reflection on operating principles 5
6. 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
7. 7 2013
8. 8 Epic battles between Dev and Ops
9. 9 https://blog.matthewskelton.net/2013/10/22/what-team-s tructure-is-right-for-devops-to-flourish/
10. 10 https://web.devopstopologies.com/
11. 11 https://web.devopstopologies.com/ Used by Netflix, Condé Nast, Accenture, etc. etc.
12. Thanks to Gene Kim and IT Revolution Press (and many other inspiring people) 12
14. Why is Team Topologies useful? 14
15. Team Topologies is way more disruptive and useful than we ever imagined … but 🤷 #sorrynotsorry 15
16. Team Topologies provides several things for organizations… 16
17. 17 Language for dealing with flow, boundaries, architecture, dynamics
18. 18 Heuristics (clues) for organizing teams and software
19. 19 Ways for teams to define expectations + close gaps
20. 20 A focus on fast flow as a key driver
21. 21 Deliberate constraints on behaviors
22. 22 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthewskelton_tea mtopologies-activity-7009449368537726976-biXt “Team Topologies is … a set of constraints to encourage emergent behaviours.”
23. [quick overview] 23
24. 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
25. 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
26. 26 Platform grouping
28. 28 Flow of change
29. 29 Cash Concept Flow of change
30. 30 User Need Flow of change
31. 31 Live service Version control Flow of change
32. 32 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team
33. 33 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😢
34. 34 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😐 Facilitating Enabling team
35. 35 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😊 Facilitating Enabling team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS
36. Platform grouping 36 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration UX
37. Platform grouping 37 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Stream-aligned team xN
38. 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
40. flow-centric roles 40
41. Almost all decisions need to use the twin ‘lenses’ of fast flow and team cognitive load 41
42. Team Topologies indicates: Almost ALL roles and teams should be focused on either: 🔀 A flow of change -or- 👐 Supporting flow(s) of change 42
43. 🔀 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
44. 👐 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
45. 45 Continuously ‘untangle’ business concepts
46. 46 Find and adjust team & system boundaries for flow
47. 47 Minimize hand-offs
48. 48 Avoid blocking dependencies
49. 49 Move some decision-making to teams
50. 50 Team Topologies exposes any lack of clarity in purpose, conflict in priorities, or misalignment of incentives
51. Team Topologies outside of IT 51
52. Organizations outside IT and software are already using TT 52
53. 53 https://mobile.twitter.com/amcunningham/status/1517912010599682052 “Let's bring Team Topologies to the whole of the [National Health Service]!”
54. 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.”
55. Legal services 55
56. 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?
57. 57 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Client A Individual vs Company
58. 58 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😊 Facilitating Enabling team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS Cross-border M&A “Fee-earner”
59. 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
60. 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.
61. [Accountancy] 61
62. Clinical care / healthcare 62
63. 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
64. 64 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team COVID-19 complications Malnourished
65. 65 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😊 Facilitating Enabling team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS X-ray or MRI scan Consultant surgeon
66. 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
67. 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
68. 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
69. News and media 69
70. 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
71. 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
72. 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
73. Education curriculum design 73
74. 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
75. 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
76. HR/People 76
77. 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
78. 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
79. Venue services (e.g. audiovisual equipment) 79
80. 80 Challenges for venue services Rapid deployment at scale Courtrooms, music venues Testing and validation
81. The team-based operating system 81
82. 82 TeamForm teamform.co
83. 83 TeamOS teamos.is Disclosure: Matthew Skelton has invested personally in the company behind TeamOS
85. WTF is going on?! 85
86. 86 Time for some reverse engineering!
87. 87 legal services clinical care / healthcare news & media accounting education design HR/people OS ?
88. 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"?
90. knowledge work 90
91. language 91
92. interactions 92
93. ownership 93
94. boundaries 94
95. cognitive load 95
96. flow 96
97. 97 language interactions boundaries ownership cognitive load flow
98. 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
99. Constraints in Team Topologies 99
100. Team Topologies is a set of constraints to encourage emergent behaviours for fast flow 100 (Matthew Skelton)
101. TT constraint #1 101 4 team types (well, 3 + 1) grouping Image © 2019 Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. Used with permission.
102. Each team type (or grouping) has specific expected behaviors 102
103. Each team type (or grouping) has a specific relation to flow and team cognitive load 103
104. TT principle #2 104 3 team interaction modes Image © 2019 Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. Used with permission.
105. The constraints on interactions provide signals to tell us when boundaries are not good for fast flow 105
106. The constraints on interactions provide signals to tell us about intent/mission, capabilities, skills, strategy, and lots more… 106
107. TT principle #3 107 fast flow
108. Organizing for fast flow means we are happy with: duplication, (a few) different versions, async + eventual consistency, ‘internal marketplace’, etc. 108
109. TT principle #4 109 team cognitive load
110. Using team cognitive load as a key architectural and design principle means we have a humane, compassionate, and realistic workplace 110
111. TT principle #5 111 thinnest viable platform (TVP)
112. TVP avoids ‘platform bloat’ by focusing on enhancing flow and reducing team cognitive load - rather than technology 112
113. TT principle #6 113 empower teams to adjust boundaries to enhance flow
114. Empowering teams to adjust boundaries for flow uses local knowledge for regular incremental gains, avoiding a dreaded ‘Re-org’ every 5 years 114
115. Techniques from the Team Topologies community 115
116. 116 Independent Service Heuristics (ISH)
117. 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
118. 118 User Needs Mapping (UNM)
119. 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
120. 120 Team Interaction Modeling (TIM)
121. 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
122. Exercise: find boundaries with ISH 122
123. Miro for ISH group exercise : https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNWDi_sg=/?m oveToWidget=3458764567911802641&cot=14 123
124. ISH principles 124
125. ISH principle #1 125 Flow-friendly boundaries
126. ISH principle #2 128 Business-friendly language
127. ISH principle #3 130 Promote group discussion and learning
128. ISH principle #4 132 Rapid results needed
129. What are these ISH questions actually doing? 134
130. viability 135
131. existing SaaS 136
132. decoupled? 137
133. outsource-able 138
134. use biz expertise 139
135. hint at Haier 140
136. “fractalization” 141
137. navigate complexity 142
138. Case Study North-American ecommerce market leader Health-related industry Regulatory obstacles Ambitious growth 143
139. 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…”
140. 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?”
141. Case Study Our approach: visual “heat-map” 146 Immediate sense of consensus or ambiguity. Identify areas for splitting off or further investigation.
142. 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
143. 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
144. We used Independent Service Heuristics to help people realize what is involved in finding good boundaries for fast flow 149
145. Case Study Large retailer in South-East Asia Differentiating via digital services 150
146. 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
147. Case Study ISH bridged physical and digital product needs 152 checkout flow, High Net Worth customers, order picking, returns, shipping & fulfilment, warehouse management, …
148. Case Study Our approach: visual “heat-map” 153
149. Case Study “The framework and shared language [of] ISH … was transformational to the discussions … about our organisation and team structure.” – Head of Product 154
150. Case Study “Thanks to the Team Topologies and ISH framework our team structure is more autonomous, meaningful, and productive.” – Head of Product 155
151. Biz and product people often have an intuitive lightbulb moment 💡 with ISH and become enthusiastic 156
152. Takeaway points - ISH 157
153. Going through the ISH heuristics raised important topics that focusing on the domain only didn’t surface 159
154. People would often mention heuristics in meetings - they started to become ingrained in day-to-day thinking 160
155. We did design with a diverse group and didn’t need to introduce much theory or explain weird terminology 161
156. ISH addresses many dimensions for flow-friendly boundaries: viability, (de)coupling, existing SaaS, outsource-able, Haier-style micro enterprises, … 165
157. Independent Service Heuristics (ISH) is a pragmatic, accessible sense-making technique based on Team Topologies principles 167
158. Try the Independent Service Heuristics (ISH): teamtopologies.com/ish 168
159. Reflection on operating principles 169
160. “Which of these things are challenging for you or your organization, and why?” 170
161. Miro for group reflection: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNWDi_sg=/?m oveToWidget=3458764568041818171&cot=14 171
162. Operating principles 172
163. 173 Intentional interactions 🔁
164. 174 Team Cognitive Load as a design constraint 🧠
165. 175 Diffuse learning 🎓
166. 176 Use humans for sense-making 󰰁
167. 177 Trust boundaries exist ⭕
168. 178 Global Optimum not possible 📉
169. 179 "Externalizable APIs" 🔌
170. 180 Loose coupling 🔗
171. 181 Clear ownership boundaries 🚧
172. 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)
173. Desynchronous 183
174. 184 Avoid temporal dependencies
175. 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.
176. 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.
177. 187 ➡ desynchronous.com
178. Why is Team Topologies useful? Constraints in Team Topologies Exercise: find boundaries with ISH Reflection on operating principles 188
179. 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
180. 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
181. 191 What’s your perspective? Which aspects resonate? Which things feel incorrect?
182. 192 expert-led group learning for adopting fast flow and Team Topologies confluxhq.com
183. thank you confluxhq.com Copyright (c) 2017-2023 Conflux group of companies. All Rights Reserved. The name “Conflux” and the filled C device are Registered Trademarks ® in multiple jurisdictions.