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.

1. TeamTopologies.com
@TeamTopologies
Manuel Pais
co-author of Team Topologies
Remote-First Team
Interactions

2. Remote Work ?
+
2

3. Remote Work
tools
+
ground rules and practices
3

4. 4
Poor remote interactions
can kill the
“DevOps transformation”.

5. Team Topologies
5
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press (Sep 2019)
Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book

6. 6
Team Dependencies
Setting Team Boundaries
Purposeful Interactions
Feedback

7. Team Dependencies
7

8. 8
In a remote-first context,
it’s vital to understand
who is working on what

9. Team API
9

10. “For effective team-first ownership
of software, teams need to
continuously define, advertise, test,
and evolve their Team API”
Team Topologies, p.48
10

11. Team API
11
● Artifacts owned by the team
● Versioning & testing approach
● Wiki and documentation
● Practices and principles
● Roadmap & priorities
● Communication preferences (when/how)

12. Team API
12
● Artifacts owned by the team
● Versioning & testing approach
● Wiki and documentation
● Practices and principles
● Roadmap & priorities
● Communication preferences (when/how)

13. 13
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-API-template

14. Tracking Dependencies
14

15. Team dependencies tracking
15
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-Dependencies-Tracking

16. “Making Work Visible”
16

17. 17
Eliminate blocking dependencies.
Mitigate slow dependencies.
Keep healthy dependencies.

18. Setting Team
Boundaries
18

19. Group Trust Levels
19

20. “an individual’s social network
(meaningful relationships)
is typically in the order of
100–200 individuals”
- Robin Dunbar
20
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.150292

21. 21

22. 22

23. 23
Trust dynamics can change
when crossing a Dunbar
boundary. Expect different
rules & non-linear effects.

24. 24
Private car salesCommercial car sales
Car leasing
[example]From Team Topologies,
chapter 3 (page 53)

25. 25

26. 26
Private car sales
Commercial car sales
Car leasing

27. 27
# enabling-test-automation
...
# platform-team
…
# stream-team-1
# stream-team-2
# stream-team-3
...
# st1-platform-monitoring
# st2-enabling-test-automation
...
Mary (Platform
Team Engineer)
# support-environments
# support-logging
…
# marketing
# sales
...

28. 28

29. Team-focused conventions
29
● team channel: team topology and name
● (temp) interaction channel: teams + purpose
● support channel: support + service name
● username: name + role + team + topology

30. 30
Team-focused conventions
increase discoverability
and reduce cognitive load
on communications.

31. Purposeful
Interactions
31

32. Infinite Collaboration
(Myth Busting)
32

33. 33
We cannot and should not
expect to talk to everyone
else (person or team)

34. 34
Well-defined interactions
are key to effective teams

35. 35
Team Interaction Modes
Collaboration: 2 teams working together
X-as-a-Service: 1 provides, 1 consumes
Facilitating: 1 team helps another

36. 36

37. 37
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-API-template

38. Stream-aligned team 1
38
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
3 weeks
(from Apr 13
to Apr 30,
2h per day)
Face Recognition
Complicated
subsystem team
Collaboration Define response
errors and
workflow for poor
contrast photos
2 months
(from Mar 30
to May 29,
1 day per week)

39. Use awkwardness in team
interactions as a sensing
mechanism for evolution
39

40. Clarify Communication
Purpose & Channels
40

41. 41
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

42. 42
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

43. 43
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

44. Incident Response
44

45. “...three-tier support should be
replaced with Swarming”
– Jon Stevens-Hall, 2016
45
https://medium.com/@JonHall_/itsm-devops-and-why-the-three
-tier-structure-must-be-replaced-with-swarming-91e76ba22304

46. 46

47. 47
# swarm-severity-1
# swarm-local-dispatch
...
Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

48. Feedback
48

49. 49

50. 50
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/twilio-devops/

51. 51

52. Team Topologies
52
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press
Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book

53. Free workbook
coming soon...
Team Topologies
for Remote Teams
53
for Remote
Teams
Sign up for news: teamtopologies.com/newsletter

54. Remote-First
Training & Assessments
teamtopologies.com/training
teamtopologies.com/assessments

55. Resources
55
teamtopologies.com/key-concepts
tinyurl.com/Public-Talks-Team-Topologies
techbeacon.com/devops/why-you-should-hire-devops-enablers-not-experts
techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/forget-monoliths-vs-microservices-cognit
ive-load-what-matters
github.com/teamtopologies
(Team Cognitive Load Assessment, Independent Service Heuristics, Thin
Platform template, Team Dependencies Tracking, Team API template)

56. Thank you!
56
Matthew Skelton, Conflux
@matthewpskelton
Manuel Pais, Independent
@manupaisable
teamtopologies.com