Team

Topologies
at Parts Unlimited

Manuel Pais
&
Matthew Skelton
TeamTopologies.com
24 Jan 2020 @TeamTopologies
Team Topologies
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press

teamtopologies.com/book

2
Team-First Approach

Streams & Platforms

Enablement

Org Dynamics
3
Team-First Approach

4
Concerns about current team organization

1. not always clear what team is working on

2. lack of focus, pulled in many directions

3. biz/tech expectations mismatch

4. Slack / comms overflow

5
Team size ≲ 9 *
* possibly 15
6
COGNITIVE LOAD:
The total amount of
mental effort being used
in the working memory
- John Sweller
7
Software that is ‘too big for
our heads’ works against
organizational agility
8
9
Each service must be fully
owned by a team with
sufficient cognitive capacity
to build and operate it.
10
 Recommendations

1. assess teams’ cognitive load

2. detect gaps in capabilities

(“enablement” section)

3. identify how platform can help

(“streams & platforms” section)
11
Streams & Platforms

14
15
Current business streams

1. manufacturing
2. in-store sales
3. ecommerce sales
4. engine sensor
5. parts delivery

16
Current platform services

CI/CD : Unikettel

Data APIs : Narwhal

(Project Shamu)

17
 Concerns about platform viability

1. unclear platform onboarding

2. which teams are responsible for platform

3. how to scale

18
“A digital platform is a foundation of
self-service APIs, tools, services,
knowledge and support which are
arranged as a compelling internal
product.”

– Evan Bottcher, 2018

19
Platform

treat the platform as a

product (reliable, usable, fit
for purpose) for internal
customers

20
Platform as a Product

strong collaboration with

stream-aligned teams for
any new service or evolution

21
Platform as a Product
on-call support
service status pages
suitable comms channels
response time for incidents
downtime planned & announced
& good product management
22
23
 Recommendations

1. define & fund platform teams & group

2. pilot services for monitoring & telemetry

in collaboration with Promotions team

3. stabilize & document Unikettel / SaaS

24
25
Enablement

31
32
Concerns about cross functional teams

1. large skill set required

2. reliant on hiring new engineers

3. guilds don’t target teams’ needs

33
Enabling Purpose

team of experts to help

bridge capability gaps
(technical or product mgmt)

34
Enabling Purpose

reduce dependencies on
experts by teaching rather
than doing the work

35
Enabling Behaviors

facilitate knowledge via

● training, workshops
● tool/framework selection
● pairing on examples
● guidance on good practices
36
The success of enabling
teams is the success of
stream-aligned teams
39
Recommended Domains for Enabling Teams

Continuous Delivery
Automated Testing
Product Development
Business & system monitoring
Design/UX
Security
40
Org Dynamics

41
42
Source: https://twitter.com/MattThatITGuy/status/730170546139189253 44
The Org Chart

Source: “Team of Teams”, McChrystal, 2015

45
The Org Chart

Source: “Team of Teams”, McChrystal, 2015

46
Rapid flow of change

47
Co-design of org and
system architecture 48
“Any organization that designs a
system (defined broadly) will
produce a design whose structure is
a copy of the organization's
communication structure.”

– Mel Conway, 1968

49
“if the architecture of the system and
the architecture of the organization
are at odds, the architecture of the
organization wins”

– Ruth Malan, 2008

50
Reverse
Conway
Image from Max Pixel 51
Rapid feedback from
systems & customers 52
53
 Reverse
Conway
Image Source: https://nodramadevops.com/2019/11/review-the-unicorn-project/ 54
 Thank you!
teamtopologies.com

Matthew Skelton, Conflux Manuel Pais, Independent

@matthewpskelton @manupaisable

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