The document discusses the organization of IT teams to optimize cognitive load and enhance performance through established team topologies, including stream-aligned, enabling, platform, and complicated subsystem teams. It emphasizes the importance of managing cognitive load for effective software development and proposes strategies to assess and tame this load. Additionally, the document provides insights into team interaction modes and encourages the adoption of these practices for building modern software systems.

1. TeamTopologies.com
@TeamTopologies
Manuel Pais
@manupaisable
Playing
Tetris
with
Cognitive
Load

2. Manuel Pais
2
Independent IT organizational
consultant and trainer
Ex-dev, ex-build manager, ex-tester,
ex-team lead
LinkedIn instructor on CI/CD
Twitter: @manupaisable

3. Team Topologies
3
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press, 2019
teamtopologies.com/book

4. “innovative tools and concepts for
structuring the next generation
digital operating model”
Charles T. Betz,
Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
4

5. Remote Team Interactions
Workbook
5
Using Team Topologies
Patterns for Remote Working
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press, 2022
teamtopologies.com/workbook

7. Team Cognitive Load
CI/CD
infrastructure
security

8. coding
testing deploying
security
infrastructure
operations
CI/CD
arch &
design

9. coding
testing deploying
security
infrastructure
operations
CI/CD
arch &
design
building the
product right

10. “Great products emerge from
empowered, fully cross-functional
teams.”
– John Cutler, 2019
10

11. coding
testing deploying
security
infrastructure
operations
CI/CD
arch &
design
UX
cust satisfaction
metrics
product
viability
QA

12. coding
testing deploying
security
infrastructure
operations
CI/CD
arch &
design
UX
monitor
metrics
product
viability
QA
building the
right product

13. CI/CD
infrastructure
security
Team Cognitive Load

14. UX
metrics
Team Cognitive Load

15. product viability
QA
customer
satisfaction
Team Cognitive Load

17. Team Cognitive Load
18

18. COGNITIVE LOAD:
The total amount of mental
effort being used in the
working memory
- John Sweller
19

19. COGNITIVE LOAD
From a SW delivery
team perspective
20

20. Intrinsic
Extraneous
Germane
21
“How are
classes
defined in
Java?”

21. Intrinsic
Extraneous
Germane
22
“How do I
deploy this
app to the
cloud,
again?”

22. Intrinsic
Extraneous
Germane
23
“How do
bank
transfers
work?”

23. Intrinsic (skills)
Extraneous (mechanism)
Germane (domain focus)
24

24. (Intrinsic)
] Extraneous [
Germane
25

25. Taming Cognitive Load
26
Explicit cognitive load

26. 27
Each service must be fully
owned by a team with
sufficient cognitive capacity
to build and operate it.

27. Assess cognitive load
28
github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-Cognitive-Load-Assessment

28. 29

29. 30
F
e
a
t
u
r
e

30. Taming Cognitive Load
31
Explicit cognitive load
Team-sized software

31. Limit the size of software
services/products to the
cognitive load that the
team can handle.
32

32. 33

33. Taming Cognitive Load
34
Explicit cognitive load
Team-sized software
Adequate team topologies

34. topology
the way in which constituent parts are
interrelated or arranged
Greek: τοπολογία (τόπος == ‘place’)
35

35. 4 fundamental topologies
36
Stream-aligned team

36. 37

37. 38
We expect most teams to be
(value) stream-aligned
with end-to-end ownership
(if we want fast flow)

38. Team Cognitive Load

39. 4 fundamental topologies
40
Stream-aligned team
Enabling team

40. 41
Enabling teams reduce the learning
curve for new team capabilities
by teaching and mentoring

41. Team Cognitive Load

42. 4 fundamental topologies
43
Stream-aligned team
Enabling team
Platform team

43. 44
Platform teams provide services that
enable stream-aligned teams to deliver
work with substantial autonomy

45. “A digital platform is a foundation of
self-service APIs, tools, services,
knowledge and support which are
arranged as a compelling internal
product.”
– Evan Bottcher, 2018
46

46. “A digital platform is a foundation of
self-service APIs, tools, services,
knowledge and support which are
arranged as a compelling internal
product.”
– Evan Bottcher, 2018
47

47. Team Cognitive Load

48. 4 fundamental topologies
49
Stream-aligned team
Enabling team
Platform team
Complicated subsystem team

49. 50
Complicated subsystem teams build
and evolve part of a system which
requires specialized, PhD type of
knowledge

50. Team Cognitive Load

51. 4 fundamental topologies
52
Flow of change

52. 53
Team Interaction Modes
Collaboration: 2 teams working together
X-as-a-Service: 1 provides, 1 consumes
Facilitating: 1 team helps another

53. 3 core interaction modes
54
Flow of change
X-as-a-Service
Facilitating
Collaboration

54. 55
When used with care, these are the only
four fundamental topologies and team
interaction modes needed to build and
run modern software systems.

55. Taming Cognitive Load
56
Explicit cognitive load
Team-sized software
Adequate team topologies

57. Also important
58
Independent Services
Avoid Conway’s mismatches
Organizational sensing

58. Free Resources
59
teamtopologies.com/learn
(infographics, slides, video)
teamtopologies.com/examples
(uSwitch, WealthWizards & more)

59. Infographics
● Getting Started
● In a Nutshell
60
teamtopologies.com/infographics

60. academy.teamtopologies.com

61. Promo code chileagil2022 for 15% OFF

62. Suggestions & pull requests are welcome!
En Español

63. 64
Manuel Pais
FlowOnRails
Twitter: @manupaisable
LinkedIn: manuelpais
Matthew Skelton
Conflux
Twitter: @matthewpskelton
LinkedIn: matthewskelton
Copyright © Conflux Digital Ltd and FlowOnRails 2018-2022. All rights reserved.
teamtopologies.com