What is Team Topologies? Is it a framework? Is it a set of principles? How can you start using it without having a big-bang, top-down approach? And is that ever the right approach?

In a recorded interview from the Acceler8IT Conference in Krakow, Matthew Skelton, co-author of Team Topologies, sat down with Sabine Wojcieszak from getNextIT to discuss the practical and human-centered value of Team Topologies in modern workplaces. Their conversation delves into the potential of this flexible framework, which promotes adaptive team structures, reducing cognitive load, and nurturing a sense of security and fulfillment at work.

In our recent Project to Product Open Forum, we gathered leaders, practitioners, and transformation experts to explore the challenges and opportunities of moving from a project-centric to a product-centric way of working. The conversation couldn’t have been more timely; with only 2% of organizations fully mature in these transformation attempts and with a failure rate of 70% for business transformations, the shift is proving to be more difficult than anticipated for many organizations.

People should look at Team Topologies as a way of thinking or a pattern language. Team Topologies aims to help leaders design for a fast flow of value. It allows you to design a team-of-teams organization, which, combined with a relevant decoupled architecture of products and the appropriate processes (think Continuous Delivery as one example), allows even big organizations to achieve fast flow of value. Unlike organizational charts, the resulting diagrams are just a starting point and must continuously evolve as the organization grows and changes along with the environment in which it operates. This is why we often tell people to consider Team Topologies more like Design Thinking, i.e., an iterative and continuous process that helps you understand complex challenges and find optimal solutions.

This article explores the synergy between the Kanban method and Team Topologies to enhance work processes in knowledge work organizations. By making policies explicit, both methodologies facilitate clearer team interactions and improved workflow management. Discover how integrating these approaches can lead to evolutionary change and greater business agility.

This short case study describes a personal journey undertaken as a Team Topologies Advocate at a global financial services organization.

Key takeaways:

• Most organizations never get the desired results from a reorganization

• The 3-day offsite “reorg” is almost guaranteed to be a costly failure

• A better approach is adaptive, continuous adjustment

• Use open techniques from Team Topologies to shift and adapt the organization

I (João Rosa) recently created an online cohort-based course, Effectively Manage Team Cognitive Load. Since the release of Team Topologies book, I have adopted its language and principles in my consultancy practice, supporting organizations in their digital transformation journey. I’ve noticed in the field that more people are aware of the effects of unmanaged Team Cognitive Load in their teams and organizations, using the concept presented in the Team Topologies book to drive changes in their organizations.