Autonomous product teams are key to 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 reduce the cognitive load on product teams. Abstract: So you’re trying to move from agile project teams to business-aligned product teams. Everyone from the CEO to middle management is on board. Yet somehow it’s not that easy, is it? You’ve just about figured out how to split infrastructure responsibilities between teams when the next great tech for cost-effective scalability is out there and it doesn’t fit in the new model. Oh, and let’s not forget that products X and Y have no automated tests since they were developed by temporary project teams. The underlying questions are: What are the product team’s responsibilities? How do they interact with other teams and when? The fundamental team topologies provide a framework for thinking about and aligning teams with an expected set of behaviors and responsibilities. In other words, we are clarifying their purpose and ways of working. We recommend four fundamental team topologies, each with a well-defined purpose and responsibilities. Along with stream-aligned teams (of which product teams are a subset), the other three topologies recommended are a platform, enabling, and complicated subsystem. This family of topologies provides the support system necessary for product teams to thrive. In this talk, we will see what each of these topologies brings to the table and how they enable organizations to quickly evolve and respond to both new technology and business requirements over time. We will also map some common team types in the industry to the fundamental topologies, highlighting how the same team can be either a pattern or an anti-pattern depending on the context around them. This talk draws on research and case studies from the book Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais (IT Revolution Press, 2019) together with first-hand consulting experience from the authors with organizations around the world. Team Topologies are the evolution of the highly praised DevOps Topologies, focusing on an evolutionary approach for organization design.

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

6. 6
https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/devops-sre/the-2019-accelerate-state-of- devops-elite-
performance-productivity-and-scaling

9. 9
There’s a limit to
the scalability
of product teams alone

10. 10

11. 11

16. 16
Handovers (can) kill flow

18. 18

19. “Great products emerge from
empowered, fully cross-functional
teams.”
– John Cutler, 2019
22

20. “Despite striving to be cross-
functional, one of the thornier
problems product teams often face is
lacking some necessary
competence.”
– Peter Neumark, 2015
23

21. arch &
design
coding
testing
deploying

22. coding
testing
deploying
infra
arch &
design

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

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

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

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

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

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

29. 32
autonomy

30. 33
competences

31. 34
How to alleviate the tension between:
team autonomy (increases flow)
and
lack of competences (decreases flow)

33. 36

34. 37

35. 38

37. 40

39. 42

41. “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
44

42. A good platform is
treated as a product
(reliable, usable,
fit for purpose)
45

43. 46

45. 48

46. 49

48. 51

49. 52

50. 53
When used with care, these are the only
four fundamental team topologies
needed to build and run modern
software systems.

51. 54

52. 55

53. Also important
56
Team-sized software
Avoid Conway mismatches
Organizational sensing
Thinnest Viable Platform (TVP)

54. Nationwide Project to Product: Practical Realities at a Large Scale Enterprise
Adidas Where Cloud Native Meets the Sporting Goods Industry
Barclays The Yin and Yang of Speed and Control
BMW Game Changer: 100% Agile
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

56. Thank you!
teamtopologies.com
59
Matthew Skelton, Conflux
@matthewpskelton
Manuel Pais, Independent
@manupaisable
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