Team Topologies

Today I finally finished Team Topologies. Really good book, kind of dense even though it is relatively short and very well written. There is just a lot to unpack. I'll do a brief overview here which will not do the actual content justice.

The basic premise of the books starts with Conway's Law

Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure.^[2][3]

— Melvin E. Conway

The idea that Unfortunately, organization structures do not necessarily make the best design. In fact the first chapter goes into why that's true, the second chapter goes into why Conway's Law matters. The third chapter discusses a team first mentality. The rest of the book talks about what the authors are proposing as the fundamental team topologies and what goes into making them successful.

The basics are really well are summarized in the final chapter. In short,

1. Four Team Types:
   • Stream Aligned Teams
   • Enabling Teams
   • Complex Subsystems
   • Platform
2. 3 Interaction Modes
   • Collaboration
   • Facilitating
   • X-as-a-Service

Over time an organizations of each of these will fluctuate and change depedning on context, and the book provides some good things to look for as your organization change.

While I finished the book and I'll be passing it on to one of my colleagues, I've decided to buy it so I have a copy for reference. I recommend this book, it is a good book.