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
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
co-authors of Team Topologies
Remote-First
Team Interactions
with Team Topologies

2. Remote Work ?
+
2

3. Remote Work
tools
+
ground rules and practices
3

4. Team Topologies
4
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press
Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book

5. 5
Visualizing Dependencies
Setting Team Boundaries
Purposeful Interactions
Feedback

6. Visualizing Dependencies
6

7. 7
In a remote-first context,
it’s vital to understand
what are teams working on

8. Team API
8

9. “For effective team-first ownership
of software, teams need to
continuously define, advertise, test,
and evolve their Team API”
Team Topologies, p.48
9

10. Team API
10
● Artifacts produced by the team
● Wiki and documentation
● Practices and principles
● Communication: tools, channels, patterns
● Current and next team focus (work)

11. Team API
11
● Artifacts produced by the team
● Wiki and documentation
● Practices and principles
● Communication: tools, channels, patterns
● Current and next team focus (work)

12. 12
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-API-template

13. Team Dependencies
13

14. Team dependencies tracking
14
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-Dependencies-Tracking

15. 15
Eliminate blocking dependencies.
Mitigate slow dependencies.
Keep healthy dependencies.

16. “Making Work Visible”
16

17. Team Socialization
(at a distance)
17

18. 18

19. 19

20. Setting Team
Boundaries
20

21. Group Trust Levels
21

22. “an individual’s social network
(meaningful relationships)
is typically in the order of
100–200 individuals”
- Robin Dunbar
22
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.150292

23. 23

24. 24

25. 25
Trust dynamics can change
when crossing a Dunbar
boundary. Expect different
rules & non-linear effects.

26. 26
Private car salesCommercial car sales
Car leasing
[example]From Team Topologies,
chapter 3 (page 53)

27. 27

28. 28
Private car sales
Commercial car sales
Car leasing

29. 29
# 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
...

30. 30

31. Team-focused conventions
31
● team channel: team topology and name
● (temp) interaction channel: teams + purpose
● support channel: support + service name
● username: name + role + team + topology

32. Conway’s Law
32

33. “Any organization that designs a
system (defined broadly) will
produce a design whose structure
is a copy of the organization's
communication structure.”
– Mel Conway, 1968
33
Conway’s Law

34. 34
Decisions on communication
lines within the organisation
strongly influence the
software architecture

35. 35
Take advantage of the
mirroring effect of
Conway’s Law

36. 36

37. 37

38. 38
If you can’t change,
at least reduce the
friction points with
clear communications

39. 39

40. 40

41. 41
DBA Team API

42. 42
# app-team-A
# app-team-B
# app-team-C
# app-team-D
…
# DBA-team
# DBA-app-team-A
...
# ops-team
...

43. Purposeful
Interactions
43

44. Myth Busting #1:
Infinite Collaboration
44

45. 45
We cannot and should not
expect to talk to everyone
else (person or team)

46. 46
Well-defined interactions
are key to effective teams

47. 47
Team Interaction Modes
Collaboration: 2 teams working together
X-as-a-Service: 1 provides, 1 consumes
Facilitating: 1 team helps another

48. 48

49. Use awkwardness in team
interactions as a sensing
mechanism for evolution
49

50. Myth Busting #2:
Org Chart as
Communication Path
50

51. 51
Org Chart
vs
Reality

52. 52
The Org Chart Problem
Source: “Team of Teams”, McChrystal, 2015

53. the key to successful knowledge
work is in the interactions
between the informal structure
and the value creation structure
53

54. 54

55. 55
chat

56. Decision Making
vs
Communication
56

57. 57
https://basecamp.com/guides/how-we-communicate

58. 58
https://basecamp.com/books/remote
https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote

59. Clarify Communication
Purpose & Channels
59

60. 60
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

61. 61
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

62. 62
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

63. Incident Response
63

64. “...three-tier support should be
replaced with Swarming”
– Jon Stevens-Hall, 2016
64
https://medium.com/@JonHall_/itsm-devops-and-why-the-three
-tier-structure-must-be-replaced-with-swarming-91e76ba22304

65. 65

66. 66

67. 67
# swarm-severity-1
# swarm-local-dispatch
...
Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

68. Feedback
68

69. 69

70. 70
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/twilio-devops/

71. 71

72. Team Topologies
72
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press
Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book

73. Free workbook
coming soon...
Team Topologies
for Remote Teams
73
for Remote
Teams
Sign up for news: teamtopologies.com/newsletter

74. Training
74
Day 1
Fundamentals
Day 2
Deep Dive
Day 3
Applying in Context
teamtopologies.com/training

75. Thank you!
75
Matthew Skelton, Conflux
@matthewpskelton
Manuel Pais, Independent
@manupaisable
teamtopologies.com