Remote-first work is the "new normal" for companies around the world. There is no shortage of advice on how individual teams can bond and work effectively remotely.
However, there is not much on how to address remote interactions between different teams that need to collaborate remotely, as part of the same value stream. Moving from the physical to the online world can further expose pre-existing interaction problems, increase wait times and slow down delivery and possibly response to incidents.
Based on the ideas from Team Topologies, Manuel Pais and Matthew Skelton will present some useful approaches to clarify and evolve inter-team interactions and communication in this remote-first world.
Designing Team APIs and virtual communication channels that promote relevant team interactions while minimizing communication overhead will help modern organizations keep a fast flow of delivery once they're past the initial adaptation to teleworking.
Following well-defined interaction patterns and architecting for team-first software boundaries will also help reduce communication overhead, clarify expectations on teams, and increase visibility of on-going work and support.
2. Team Topologies
2
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press, 2019
teamtopologies.com/book
3. “innovative tools and concepts for
structuring the next generation
digital operating model”
Charles T. Betz,
Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
3
4. Remote Team Interactions
Workbook
4
Using Team Topologies
Patterns for Remote Working
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press, 2022
Available to pre-order now
teamtopologies.com/workbook
5. “extends the original book with
valuable exercises to setup your
teams effectively for a
Remote First world”
Stefan van Oirschot,
Chief Digital Advisor at Red Hat
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15. Team API
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● Artifacts owned by the team
● Versioning & testing approach
● Wiki and documentation
● Practices and principles
● Roadmap & priorities
● Communication preferences (when/how)
17. “For effective team-first ownership
of software, teams need to
continuously define, advertise, test,
and evolve their Team API”
Team Topologies, p.48
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27. “an individual’s social network
(meaningful relationships)
is typically in the order of
100–200 individuals”
- Robin Dunbar
34
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.150292
36. Team-focused conventions
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● team channel: team topology and name
● (temp) interaction channel: teams + purpose
● support channel: support + service name
● username: name + role + team + topology
45. Let real needs drive
interactions
between teams,
not formal processes.
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46. Stream-aligned team
55
Example: Teams we currently interact with
Team Name Interaction Mode Purpose Duration
Test Automation
Enabling team
Facilitating Understand test
automation and
data mgmt
examples for iOS
2 months
(from Mar 30
to May 29,
1 day per week)
Monitoring &
Telemetry
Platform team
Collaboration Store and visualize
data on product
features usage
3 weeks
(from Apr 13
to Apr 30,
2h per day)
47. Use awkwardness in team
interactions as a sensing
mechanism for evolution
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