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Navigating complexity with Team Topologies: eme...

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/

Matthew Skelton

October 26, 2023
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  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
  4. 4

  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. 13

  8. Team Topologies is way more disruptive and useful than we

    ever imagined … but 🤷 #sorrynotsorry 15
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 27

  12. Platform grouping 36 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team

    Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration UX
  13. Platform grouping 37 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team

    Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Stream-aligned team xN
  14. 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
  15. 39

  16. Almost all decisions need to use the twin ‘lenses’ of

    fast flow and team cognitive load 41
  17. Team Topologies indicates: Almost ALL roles and teams should be

    focused on either: 🔀 A flow of change -or- 👐 Supporting flow(s) of change 42
  18. 🔀 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
  19. 👐 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
  20. 50 Team Topologies exposes any lack of clarity in purpose,

    conflict in priorities, or misalignment of incentives
  21. 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.”
  22. 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?
  23. 58 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😊 Facilitating

    Enabling team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS Cross-border M&A “Fee-earner”
  24. 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
  25. 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.
  26. 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
  27. 65 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😊 Facilitating

    Enabling team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS X-ray or MRI scan Consultant surgeon
  28. 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
  29. 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
  30. 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
  31. 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
  32. 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
  33. 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
  34. 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
  35. 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
  36. 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
  37. 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
  38. 84

  39. 87 legal services clinical care / healthcare news & media

    accounting education design HR/people OS ?
  40. 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"?
  41. 89

  42. 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
  43. Team Topologies is a set of constraints to encourage emergent

    behaviours for fast flow 100 (Matthew Skelton)
  44. TT constraint #1 101 4 team types (well, 3 +

    1) grouping Image © 2019 Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. Used with permission.
  45. TT principle #2 104 3 team interaction modes Image ©

    2019 Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. Used with permission.
  46. The constraints on interactions provide signals to tell us when

    boundaries are not good for fast flow 105
  47. The constraints on interactions provide signals to tell us about

    intent/mission, capabilities, skills, strategy, and lots more… 106
  48. Organizing for fast flow means we are happy with: duplication,

    (a few) different versions, async + eventual consistency, ‘internal marketplace’, etc. 108
  49. Using team cognitive load as a key architectural and design

    principle means we have a humane, compassionate, and realistic workplace 110
  50. TVP avoids ‘platform bloat’ by focusing on enhancing flow and

    reducing team cognitive load - rather than technology 112
  51. Empowering teams to adjust boundaries for flow uses local knowledge

    for regular incremental gains, avoiding a dreaded ‘Re-org’ every 5 years 114
  52. 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
  53. 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
  54. 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
  55. 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…”
  56. 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?”
  57. Case Study Our approach: visual “heat-map” 146 Immediate sense of

    consensus or ambiguity. Identify areas for splitting off or further investigation.
  58. 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
  59. 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
  60. We used Independent Service Heuristics to help people realize what

    is involved in finding good boundaries for fast flow 149
  61. 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
  62. Case Study ISH bridged physical and digital product needs 152

    checkout flow, High Net Worth customers, order picking, returns, shipping & fulfilment, warehouse management, …
  63. Case Study “The framework and shared language [of] ISH …

    was transformational to the discussions … about our organisation and team structure.” – Head of Product 154
  64. Case Study “Thanks to the Team Topologies and ISH framework

    our team structure is more autonomous, meaningful, and productive.” – Head of Product 155
  65. Biz and product people often have an intuitive lightbulb moment

    💡 with ISH and become enthusiastic 156
  66. People would often mention heuristics in meetings - they started

    to become ingrained in day-to-day thinking 160
  67. We did design with a diverse group and didn’t need

    to introduce much theory or explain weird terminology 161
  68. ISH addresses many dimensions for flow-friendly boundaries: viability, (de)coupling, existing

    SaaS, outsource-able, Haier-style micro enterprises, … 165
  69. 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)
  70. 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.
  71. 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.
  72. Why is Team Topologies useful? Constraints in Team Topologies Exercise:

    find boundaries with ISH Reflection on operating principles 188
  73. 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
  74. 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
  75. 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.