Key Concepts
What is it?
Team Topologies is an approach to designing team-of-teams organizations for fast flow of value.
The approach is based on years of research across many organizations from different industries, different sizes and different technological backgrounds. It addresses the most dreaded challenges in technology:
How to maintain or even accelerate speed of value creation while scaling the organization?
How to evolve an architecture along with the evolution of the organization and avoid that one becomes a blocker for the other and a blocker for the growth of the business?
The approach provides a pattern language and a thinking model, which allows you to identify the team-of-teams design most appropriate for the target architecture and fast flow of value.
Four fundamental topologies
3 team interaction modes
Four fundamental topologies
Stream-aligned team: aligned to a flow of work from (usually) a segment of the business domain
Enabling team: helps a Stream-aligned team to overcome obstacles. Also detects missing capabilities.
Complicated Subsystem team: where significant mathematics/calculation/technical expertise is needed.
Platform team: a grouping of other team types that provide a compelling internal product to accelerate delivery by Stream-aligned teams
Three team interaction modes
There are only three ways in which team should interact:
Collaboration: working together for a defined period of time to discover new things (APIs, practices, technologies, etc.)
X-as-a-Service: one team provides and one team consumes something “as a Service”
Facilitation: one team helps and mentors another team
Four fundamental topologies shown with the flow of change
Words of caution
We hear sometimes criticism that the approach doesn't explain how to map the whole organization and/or create a new organizational chart.
Team Topologies is an approach to thinking and identifying where business performance gets slowed down due to bad combination of processes, teams design and/or architecture. It helps you accelerate value creation.
If your focus is to design a new org chart, you should consider other methods.
Team Topologies will help you understand how real work happens and flows. Then the approach helps you use this knowledge to design the team-of-teams organization combining both business teams and technology teams.
There is no single part of the approach, which is more important than the others. If you only use one part, e.g. team types, you are unlikely to achieve much.
Four fundamental topologies - with the flow of change
The flow of change is shown left-to-right. Stream-aligned teams own an entire slice of the business domain (or other flow) end-to-end. The Stream-aligned teams are “You Built It, You Run It” teams. There are no hand-offs to other teams for any purpose.
This diagram is a snapshot in time. The team relationships WILL change as new goals are set and the teams discover new things.
Guided enablement workshops
For those seeking swift adoption of cutting-edge strategies, these enablement workshops offer an unparalleled opportunity to catalyze change and drive success.
Team Topologies Guided Workshops present an expedited route for organizations eager to integrate Team Topologies methodologies swiftly.
Crafted and endorsed by the visionaries behind Team Topologies, Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais, these workshops distill years of consultancy into dynamic 3-hour sessions, delivering immediate, tangible results. By prioritizing interactive group dynamics, attendees are empowered to grasp concepts firsthand, accelerating organizational understanding and implementation.
Team Topologies Academy
The self-paced Team Topologies Distilled course on the Team Topologies Academy gives you all about the key ideas from Team Topologies in 3 hours.
Learn about the four types of teams, the three core interaction modes, the Platform-as-a-Product approach, or how to align teams with true value streams, have a look at the .
The Team Topologies for Managers is the best start for leaders looking for ways to to accelerate flow with a healthy ecosystem of teams aligned to streams of value and non-blocking, capability-based dependencies.
What are the core team types in Team Topologies?
What is a Thinnest Viable Platform (TVP)?
Infographics on Team Topologies
