How Does Team Structure Impact Software? with Michael Guiler

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by his colleague Mike Guiler to talk about Teams. Dan and Mike explore the four types of Team topologies and the three different types of interactions among them. They also dive deep into how to design effective Teams and how to help them grow so they can move at the speed of the customer.

Key Takeaways

• Why is a Team more than just a group of people?

• • Sometimes you can see a collection of people, not really a Team.

  • It is impossible for everyone to talk to everybody; the Team structure supports effective communication.

  • A Team must have the power to make decisions, which is called bounded autonomy. A Team has autonomy and uses its expertise to decide the most appropriate decision at a given time.

  • A Team can choose what it considers the right tool at a particular moment.

• Team Topologies:

• • Four different types of Teams:

  • • Stream-aligned Team: aligned to a flow of work from (usually) a part of the business domain. This type of Team is a lot like a Scrum Team.

    • Enabling Team: enables a Stream-aligned team to overcome impediments and can also notice missing capacities. This Team allows the stream-aligned Team to keep growing.

    • Complicated Subsystem Team: where significant mathematics/calculation/technical expertise is required.

    • Platform Team: a collection of other Team types which provide an exciting internal product to accelerate delivery by Stream-aligned Teams.

• Three different interaction modes between Teams:

• • Collaboration: It is about working together for a designated time to discover new things (APIs, practices, technologies, etc.).

  • X-as-a-Service: Defines the scenario when Team A provides, and Team B consumes something “as a Service.”

  • Facilitation: It happens when a Team helps and mentors another Team.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow, by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais

“What is a Thinnest Viable Platform (TVP)?”

User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product, by Jeff Patton and Peter Economy

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