1) The document summarizes a presentation by Manuel Pais on remote-first interactions for business and technology teams. 2) It discusses establishing team dependencies, setting clear team boundaries, defining purposeful interactions between teams, and growing feedback to facilitate remote work. 3) It emphasizes the importance of team APIs, tracking dependencies, communication conventions, and interaction modes to effectively organize remote teams.

1. TeamTopologies.com
@TeamTopologies
Manuel Pais
co-author of Team Topologies
Lean-Agile Miami Meetup, 3 Jun 2020
Remote-First
Interactions for Business
and Technology Teams

2. Who am I ?
2
Independent IT organizational consultant and trainer
Ex-dev, ex-build manager, ex-tester, ex-QA lead
LinkedIn instructor on Continuous Delivery
Co-author of the book Team Topologies

3. Remote Work ?
+
3

4. 4
https://tomgeraghty.co.uk/index.php/psycholo
gical-safety-in-distributed-and-remote-teams/
https://tomgeraghty.co.uk/index.php/measurin
g-psychological-safety/

5. Remote Work
tools
+ psychological safety
+ ground rules and practices
5

6. 6
Poor remote interactions
can kill the
“<LATEST> transformation”.

7. Team Topologies
8
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press (Sep 2019)
Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book

8. 9
Team Dependencies
Setting Team Boundaries
Purposeful Interactions
Growing Feedback

9. Team Dependencies
10

10. 11
In a remote-first context,
it’s vital to understand
who is working on what

11. Team API
12

12. “For effective team-first ownership
of software, teams need to
continuously define, advertise, test,
and evolve their Team API”
Team Topologies, p.48
13

13. Team API
14
● Artifacts owned by the team
● Versioning & testing approach
● Wiki and documentation
● Practices and principles
● Roadmap & priorities
● Communication preferences (when/how)

14. Team API
15
● Artifacts owned by the team
● Versioning & testing approach
● Wiki and documentation
● Practices and principles
● Roadmap & priorities
● Communication preferences (when/how)

15. 16
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-API-template

16. Tracking Dependencies
17

17. Team dependencies tracking
18
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-Dependencies-Tracking

18. “Making Work Visible”
19

19. 20
Eliminate blocking dependencies.
Mitigate slow dependencies.
Keep healthy dependencies.

20. Building Networks
21

21. 22

22. 23

23. Setting Team
Boundaries
24

24. Group Trust Levels
25

25. “an individual’s social network
(meaningful relationships)
is typically in the order of
100–200 individuals”
- Robin Dunbar
26
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.150292

26. 27

27. 28

28. 29
Trust dynamics can change
when crossing a Dunbar
boundary. Expect different
rules & non-linear effects.

29. 30
Private car salesCommercial car sales
Car leasing
[example]From Team Topologies,
chapter 3 (page 53)

30. 31

31. 32

32. 33
Private car sales
Commercial car sales
Car leasing

33. 34
# 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
...

34. 35

35. Team-focused conventions
36
● team channel: team topology and name
● (temp) interaction channel: teams + purpose
● support channel: support + service name
● username: name + role + team + topology

36. 37
Team-focused conventions
increase discoverability
and reduce cognitive load
on communications.

37. Purposeful
Interactions
38

38. Infinite Collaboration
(Myth Busting)
39

39. 40
We cannot and should not
expect to talk to everyone
else (person or team)

40. 41
Well-defined interactions
are key to effective teams

41. 42
Team Interaction Modes
Collaboration: 2 teams working together
X-as-a-Service: 1 provides, 1 consumes
Facilitating: 1 team helps another

42. 43

43. 44
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-API-template

44. Stream-aligned team 1
45
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)

45. Use awkwardness in team
interactions as a sensing
mechanism for evolution
46

46. Org Chart as
Communication Path
(Myth Busting)
47

47. 48
Org Chart
vs
Reality

48. 49
The Org Chart Problem
Source: “Team of Teams”, McChrystal, 2015

49. let real needs drive the
interactions between teams,
not formal processes
or org chart decisions
50

50. 51

51. Clarify Communication
Purpose & Channels
52

52. 53
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

53. 54
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

54. 55
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

55. Growing Feedback
56

56. 57

57. 58
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/twilio-devops/

58. 59

59. Team Topologies
60
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press
Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book

60. Workbook
coming soon...
Team Topologies
for Remote Teams
61
for Remote
Teams
Sign up for news: teamtopologies.com/newsletter
Icon by Pixel perfect from www.flaticon.com

61. Remote-
Friendly
Training
🠊 teamtopologies.com/events
62
Jun 2020 - Thu - 8.30am to 12.30pm EDT

62. 63

63. New “Scholarship” discount
code for Team Topologies
training for people affected
by #COVID19
TTSCHOLARSHIP2020
96€
EU
R

64. Free Resources
65
Remote-first interactions
teamtopologies.com/remote-first
Free tools & templates
github.com/teamtopologies

65. Thank you!
66
Matthew Skelton, Conflux
@matthewpskelton
Manuel Pais, Independent
@manupaisable
teamtopologies.com