Cognitive load is a central tenet of Team Topologies principles and practices.that Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais developed. As Martin Fowler explains, "Much of Team Topologies is based on the notion of Cognitive Load." While in previous issues of the newsletter we have focused on the relationship between cognitive load and platform groupings, we haven’t looked deeper into these concepts and how they are crucial to enable a fast flow of change in the organization.

We’re pleased to launch a new online interactive training series covering essential Team Topologies concepts and patterns with training led by the authors of Team Topologies, Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais.

The training sessions have been designed for the new remote-first, post-pandemic world. The sessions are 4 hours long (with breaks), making them suitable for people in multiple different timezones to join. The sessions are:

• TT04 - Principles & Practices for Stream-Aligned Teams

• TT05 - Reducing Cognitive Load with Supporting Topologies

• TT06 - Evolving Responsive Organizations

• TT07 - Team Boundaries and Architecture for Fast Flow

Each session covers a different set of Team Topologies ideas and concepts with links between sessions to connect the concepts. Each session is fully independent and valuable by itself, but when taken together as a set of four, the sessions provide a complete coverage of the essential Team Topologies ideas.

Deployment pipelines can really help Stream-aligned teams to deliver software changes independently:

1. Deployment pipelines can help to reinforce an independent flow of change for a Stream-aligned team. Don’t forget to enable rapid feedback via telemetry!

2. Define the endpoints external to the team - these represent the “outside world” from team perspective. These external endpoints should be outside or at the domain boundary.

3. There can be huge value in managing your deployment pipeline “as a Service or as a proper product, with product management approaches.