From a meetup run by Agile Yorkshire on 30 April 2020. 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
co-author of Team Topologies - @matthewpskelton
Agile Yorkshire - 30 April 2020
Remote-First
Team Interactions
with Team Topologies

2. Remote Work ?
+
3

3. Remote Work
tools
+
ground rules and practices
4

4. Team Topologies
6
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press (Sep 2019)
Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book

5. 7
Team Dependencies
Setting Team Boundaries
Purposeful Interactions
Growing Feedback

6. Team Dependencies
8

7. 9
In a remote-first context,
it’s vital to understand
who is working on what

8. Team API
10

9. “For effective team-first ownership
of software, teams need to
continuously define, advertise, test,
and evolve their Team API”
Team Topologies, p.48
11

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

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

12. 14
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-API-template

13. Tracking Dependencies
15

14. Team dependencies tracking
16
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-Dependencies-Tracking

15. “Making Work Visible”
17

16. 18
Eliminate blocking dependencies.
Mitigate slow dependencies.
Keep healthy dependencies.

17. Building Networks
19

18. 20

19. 21

20. 22
Internal Tech
Conferences
Victoria Morgan-Smith and
Matthew Skelton
Book | Training
InternalTechConf.com

21. Setting Team
Boundaries
23

22. Group Trust Levels
24

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

24. 26

25. 27

26. 28
Trust dynamics can change
when crossing a Dunbar
boundary. Expect different
rules & non-linear effects.

27. 30

28. 31

29. 32
Private car sales
Commercial car sales
Car leasing

30. 33
# 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
...

31. 36
Team-focused conventions
increase discoverability
and reduce cognitive load
on communications.

32. Purposeful
Interactions
37

33. Infinite Collaboration
(Myth Busting)
38

34. 39
We cannot and should not
expect to talk to everyone
else (person or team)

35. 40
Well-defined interactions
are key to effective teams

36. 41
Team Interaction Modes
Collaboration: 2 teams working together
X-as-a-Service: 1 provides, 1 consumes
Facilitating: 1 team helps another

37. 42

38. 43
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-API-template

39. Stream-aligned team 1
44
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)

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

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

42. 47
Org Chart
vs
Reality

43. 48
The Org Chart Problem
Source: “Team of Teams”, McChrystal, 2015

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

45. 51

46. Growing Feedback
61

47. 62

48. 63
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/twilio-devops/

49. 64

50. Team Topologies
65
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press
Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book

51. Workbook
coming soon...
Team Topologies
for Remote Teams
66
for Remote
Teams
Sign up for news: teamtopologies.com/newsletter
Icon by Pixel perfect from www.flaticon.com

52. Remote-
Friendly
Training
🠊 teamtopologies.com/training
67

53. Remote-Friendly
Assessments
🠊 teamtopologies.com/assessments
68

54. Resources
70
teamtopologies.com/remote-first
(links, slides, video)

55. Thank you!
71
Matthew Skelton, Conflux
@matthewpskelton
Manuel Pais, Independent
@manupaisable
teamtopologies.com