The fast flow organization - using Team Topologies outside of IT and software - Conflux - FastFlowConf 2023

Since the book Team Topologies was published in 2019, it has gained widespread adoption within the software/IT sector as the “go-to” reference for organizing business and technology teams for fast flow. Organizations of all sizes have found that the language, patterns, practices, ideas, and deliberate constraints of Team Topologies (TT) has helped them to move to a more humane, flow-oriented approach to building and running software-enriched services.

But can industry sectors outside software and IT also benefit from TT ideas and practices?

In this talk, Matthew Skelton (co-author of the TT book) explores how organizations in many sectors have begun to use the TT patterns to help with team-based knowledge work of all kinds. We explore the use of TT in sectors including: legal services, accountancy, clinical care in hospitals, COVID-19 emergency response, sales and marketing, HR/People, higher education, venue services (audio-visual equipment).

New tools such as TeamOS and TeamForm are also emerging in the market that explicitly use the TT principles to help organizations design and evolve the teams and dynamics for fast flow.

In effect, the core software engineering principles underlying Team Topologies - including Team API, decoupling, service boundaries, team interaction modes, Conway’s Law, organizational sensing, etc. - are being applied and tested in novel knowledge-work contexts. This presents a tremendous opportunity for people with software engineering awareness to help shape the future dynamics of digital-savvy organizations.

The talk closes by looking at some key principles around an operating model for fast flow organizations. Join the Team Topologies (r)evolution! 🤓

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From a keynote talk at FastFlowConf 2023 https://www.fastflowconf.com/schedule

Video of this talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3Lm9ohrXOQ

Transcript

1. The fast flow organization - using Team Topologies outside of IT and software Matthew Skelton, Conflux - co-author of Team Topologies FastFlowConf, London | 25 May 2023
2. 2 FastFlowConf is the first public event of its kind to focus on the approach and methodologies described in Team Topologies, by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. Our mission is to bring together practitioners, experts and enthusiastic beginners to share knowledge and ideas, as well as to grow the community.
3. 3 FastFlowConf is the first public event of its kind to focus on the approach and methodologies described in Team Topologies, by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. Our mission is to bring together practitioners, experts and enthusiastic beginners to share knowledge and ideas, as well as to grow the community. 🥰
4. Photo goes here Matthew Skelton Founder at Conflux Co-author of Team Topologies LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthewskelton Mastodon: mastodon.social/@matthewskelton 4
5. Team Topologies Organizing business and technology teams for fast flow Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais IT Revolution Press, September 2019 Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book 5
7. Team Topologies is the leading approach to organizing business and technology teams for fast flow, providing a practical, step-by‑step, adaptive model for organizational design and team interaction. 7
9. What I have learned about TT Team Topologies outside of IT What is going on?! Summary 9
10. What I have learned about Team Topologies since publication in 2019 10
11. Team Topologies is way more disruptive and useful than we ever imagined … but 🤷 #sorrynotsorry 11
12. Team Topologies provides several things for organizations… 12
13. 13 Language for dealing with flow, boundaries, architecture, dynamics
14. 14 Heuristics (clues) for organizing teams and software
15. 15 Ways for teams to define expectations + close gaps
16. 16 A focus on fast flow as a key driver
17. 17 Deliberate constraints on behaviors
18. 18 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/matthewskelton_tea mtopologies-activity-7009449368537726976-biXt “Team Topologies is … a set of constraints to encourage emergent behaviours.”
19. [quick overview] 19
20. 20 Stream-aligned team ➔ Long-lived ➔ End-to-end care and evolution of the service ➔ No hand-offs to other teams ➔ Mix of skills (“cross-functional”) ➔ Small: around 8 people
21. 21 Stream-aligned team ➔ Long-lived ➔ End-to-end care and evolution of the service ➔ No hand-offs to other teams ➔ Mix of skills (“cross-functional”) ➔ Small: around 8 people Flow of change
22. 22 Platform grouping
24. 24 Flow of change
25. 25 Cash Concept Flow of change
26. 26 User Need Flow of change
27. 27 Live service Version control Flow of change
28. 28 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team
29. 29 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😢
30. 30 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😐 Facilitating Enabling team
31. 31 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😊 Facilitating Enabling team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS
32. Platform grouping 32 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration UX
33. Platform grouping 33 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Stream-aligned team xN
34. Platform grouping 34 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration Stream-aligned team xN ⚠ Team Topologies diagrams are always just “snapshots in time”, never fixed designs
36. flow-centric roles 36
37. Almost all decisions need to use the twin ‘lenses’ of fast flow and team cognitive load 37
38. Team Topologies indicates: Almost ALL roles and teams should be focused on either: 🔀 A flow of change -or- 👐 Supporting flow(s) of change 38
39. 🔀 A flow of change: • Software changes to a service/app • Config changes to COTS software • Onboarding a new employee • Reviewing legal contracts • Installing A/V equipment 39
40. 👐 Supporting flow(s) of change: • An infrastructure platform for cloud services/apps • A data platform for analytics • A wiki or How-To guide • Real-time data for decision-making 40
41. 41 Continuously ‘untangle’ business concepts
42. 42 Find and adjust team & system boundaries for flow
43. 43 Minimize hand-offs
44. 44 Avoid blocking dependencies
45. 45 Move some decision-making to teams
46. 46 Team Topologies exposes any lack of clarity in purpose, conflict in priorities, or misalignment of incentives
47. Team Topologies outside of IT 47
48. Organizations outside IT and software are already using TT 48
49. 49 https://mobile.twitter.com/amcunningham/status/1517912010599682052 “Let's bring Team Topologies to the whole of the [National Health Service]!”
50. 50 “the concepts discussed in the book are very much applicable to other working environments and teams [outside software]” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/team-topologies-matthew-skelton-manuel-pais-tara-hopkins/ “Certain activities needed to be provided as a service that employees could easily access and get a quick and accurate result from. On other occasions we worked with a manager in a facilitative way, helping that manager to become better able to manage a situation in the team. In other situations we worked collaboratively with another team to pool resources and problem solve together, coming up with a better solution than either team would have arrived at on their own.”
51. Legal services 51
52. 52 Challenges for legal services Real-world cases span legal specialisms Fee earner lawyer prevents team ownership Per-hour billing encourages busy work Law-as-a-service?
53. 53 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Client A Individual vs Company
54. 54 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😊 Facilitating Enabling team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS Cross-border M&A “Fee-earner”
55. Platform grouping 55 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration M&A info managed as part of a flow platform Make the XaaS interaction more useful
56. Platform grouping 56 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Stream-aligned team xN Teams making supporting workflows and checklists, etc.
57. [Accountancy] 57
58. Clinical care / healthcare 58
59. 59 Challenges for clinical care Real-world cases span medical specialisms > Pregnant car accident victim with COVID-19 Consistent care over time without handoffs Managing team cognitive load
60. 60 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team COVID-19 complications Malnourished
61. 61 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team 😊 Facilitating Enabling team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS X-ray or MRI scan Consultant surgeon
62. Platform grouping 62 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration Make the XaaS interaction more useful X-ray or MRI scan managed as part of a flow platform
63. Platform grouping 63 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Stream-aligned team xN Teams making supporting workflows and checklists, etc. X-ray or MRI scan itself may have “inner” teams
64. Case Study NHS Digital - pandemic response software teams working with international healthcare experts used Team Topologies principles for rapid rollout of COVID-19 testing 64 https://axiologik.com/news-and-insights/delivering-digital-services-at-scale-in-a-crisis
65. News and media 65
66. 66 Challenges for news and media Changing consumption of news and media > TikTok, ChatGPT, AI/ML Remove editors from publication critical path Rapidly offer new digital products & tech
67. Platform grouping 67 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS Facilitating Enabling team Editors help to build capability in publication teams Editorial Editors help to define auto- approval systems
68. Platform grouping 68 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration Shape the content boundaries a data structures Content platform provides composable media consumable by … Product …an ecosystem of digital products
69. Education curriculum design 69
70. 70 Challenges for education design Technology changing the relevance of ideas > ChatGPT for essay questions Long cycles (course description as ‘contract’) Avoid ‘big batch’ validation by committee
71. Platform grouping 71 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team Complicated Subsystem team XaaS XaaS Collaboration Discuss ruleset for auto- approval Chemistry Computer ethics
72. HR/People 72
73. 73 Challenges for HR / people mgt Rigidity in people placement prevents agility > 7 months to move someone to new dept Individual bonuses work against teamwork Conway’s Law
74. Platform grouping 74 Flow of change Stream-aligned team Stream-aligned team XaaS HR as a platform with internal “customers” Onboarding Move department XaaS XaaS
75. Venue services (e.g. audiovisual equipment) 75
76. 76 Challenges for venue services Rapid deployment at scale Courtrooms, music venues Testing and validation
77. The team-based operating system 77
78. 78 TeamForm teamform.co
79. 79 TeamOS teamos.is Disclosure: Matthew Skelton has invested personally in the company behind TeamOS
81. WTF is going on?! 81
82. 82 Time for some reverse engineering!
83. 83 legal services clinical care / healthcare news & media accounting education design HR/people OS ?
84. knowledge work 84
85. language 85
86. interactions 86
87. ownership 87
88. boundaries 88
89. cognitive load 89
90. flow 90
91. 91 language interactions boundaries ownership cognitive load flow
92. Hypothesis: Team Topologies provides vital language, patterns, and constraints for almost all knowledge work situations in the context of fast flow and team ownership. 92
93. Summary 93
94. Almost all decisions need to use the twin ‘lenses’ of fast flow and team cognitive load 112
95. Hypothesis: Team Topologies provides vital language, patterns, and constraints for almost all knowledge work situations in the context of fast flow and team ownership. 113
96. 114 What’s your perspective? Which aspects resonate? Which things feel incorrect?
97. 115 18 & 19 July 2023 @ 13:30-16:30 UK time confluxhq.com/events
98. 116 expert-led group learning for adopting fast flow and Team Topologies confluxhq.com
99. thank you confluxhq.com Copyright (c) 2017-2023 Conflux group of companies. All Rights Reserved. The name “Conflux” and the filled C device are Registered Trademarks ® in multiple jurisdictions.