# Team Topologies

*Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow*

2022-03-31 | `team-management` `architecture` `devops` `agile`

> Team Topologies focuses on how to set up dynamic team structures and interaction modes that can help teams adapt quickly to new conditions, and achieve fast and safe software delivery.

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Team Topologies focuses on how to set up dynamic team structures and interaction modes that can help teams adapt quickly to new conditions, and achieve fast and safe software delivery.

## Team structure

- High cohesion: Group related things together.
- Loose coupling: There must be clear boundaries between the teams.
- Cognitive load: It's like the RAM of the team. The team can burn down if you load with more than the team can handle.

> In order to avoid bottleneck teams, you need to make sure their cognitive load is not very high.

## Conway's Law

- The organization structure will influence the architecture of the team.
- Conway’s Law says that organizations will design systems that copy their communication structure.
- In other words, there will be no focus on the optimal architecture for the project.
- First you need to define the architecture of the project, and then form the teams.

## Team-First Thinking

- Who is in the team matters less than the team dynamics.
- When measuring performance, teams matter more than individuals.
- Team = group of 5-9 who work towards a shared goals as a unit. 
  - Check [Dunbar number](/blog/dunbar-number/).
- Forming a team takes from 2 weeks to 3 months.
- Cognitive load is the total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory.
- 3 Types of cognitive load:
    - Intrinsic: Fundamentals of the problem space. Example: programming language.
    - Extraneous: Environment related. Example: how to deploy.
    - Germane: Special attention is required. Example: business domain.
- Heuristics:
    - 3 types of domain: Simple, complicated, complex.
    - If the domain is too big, split it into subdomains.
    - One team, either:
        - 2-3 simple domains.
        - 1 complex domain.
        - Avoid 2 complicated domains, better split the team.
- Define a Team API:
    - Code: endpoints, libraries, clients, ...
    - Versioning.
    - Documentation.
    - Practices and principles.
    - Communication tools.

## Team Topologies

> Instead of structuring teams according to know-how or activities, organize teams according to business domain areas.

- Success of topology depends both on team members and surrounding environment, teams and interactions.
- Split responsibilities to breakdown silos.
- Types of dependencies: Knowledge, task, and resource.
- Four types of teams:
    - Stream-aligned: deliver features, projects, products to the market asap.
    - Enabling: grow the capabilities for the Stream-aligned team(s).
    - Complicated-subsystem: reduce the cognitive load of the Stream-aligned team(s).
    - Platform: make the Stream-aligned team(s) autonomous.

## Team Interactions

- Collaboration. Work closely between teams with different skill sets.
- X-as-a-Service. Clear ownership, small cognitive load.
- Facilitation. Helping to clear impediments, focus on quality interactions between other teams.