Autonomous product teams are key for sustainable software delivery. But what does autonomy really mean? Do we expect the team to set up CI/CD, automate infra, test/UX all the things, and, of course, run and monitor their product? And still deliver features? Four fundamental team topologies and three interaction modes can help.

1. TeamTopologies.com
@TeamTopologies
Product Teams
Need a Family Too!
Manuel Pais
@manupaisable

2. “Great products emerge from
empowered, fully cross-functional
teams.”
– John Cutler, 2019
2

4. devopstopologies.com

5. devopstopologies.com

8. 8
There’s a limit to
the scalability
of product teams alone

9. 9

10. 10

14. 14
Handovers (can) kill flow

16. 16

17. “Great products emerge from
empowered, fully cross-functional
teams.”
– John Cutler, 2019
17

18. “Despite striving to be cross-
functional, one of the thornier
problems product teams often face is
lacking some necessary
competence.”
– Peter Neumark, 2015
18

19. arch &
design
coding
testing
deploying

20. coding
testing
deploying
infra
arch &
design

21. coding
testing
deploying
infra
CI/CD
arch &
design

22. coding
testing
deploying
infra
ops
CI/CD
arch &
design

23. coding
testing
deploying
security
infra
ops
CI/CD
arch &
design

24. coding
testing
deploying
security
infra
ops
CI/CD
arch &
designbuilding the
product right

25. coding
testing
deploying
security
infra
ops
UXmonitor
metrics
product
viability
QA
CI/CD
arch &
design

26. coding
testing
deploying
security
infra
ops
UXmonitor
metrics
product
viability
QA
CI/CD
arch &
designbuilding the
right product

27. 27
autonomy

28. 28
competences

29. 29
How to alleviate the tension between:
team autonomy (increases flow)
and
lack of competences (decreases flow)

31. 31

32. 32

33. 33

35. 35

37. 37

39. A good platform is
treated as a product
(reliable, usable,
fit for purpose)
39

40. 40

42. 42

43. 43

45. 45

46. 46

47. 47
When used with care, these are the only
four fundamental topologies and team
interaction modes needed to build and
run modern software systems.

48. 48

49. 49

50. Also important
50
Team-sized software
Avoid Conway mismatches
Organizational sensing
Thinnest Viable Platform (TVP)

51. Nationwide Project to Product: Practical Realities at a Large Scale Enterprise
Barclays The Yin and Yang of Speed and Control
BMW Game Changer: 100% Agile
Adidas DevOps Over Coffee
DevOpsTopologies.com
Mercedes DevOps Adoption at Mercedes-Benz.io
Twilio Platforms at Twilio: Unlocking Developer Effectiveness
MAN Truck & Bus How to Manage Cloud Infrastructure at MAN Truck & Bus
Farfetch UX I DevOps - The Trojan Horse for Implementing a DevOps Culture