Why should you take this course?

  • Learn how to apply the Team Topologies patterns and approaches within your organization to increase the effectiveness of software delivery through attention to Conway’s Law, team cognitive load, team interactions, the “Team API”, and “lifetime service viability”.

  • Managers have a key role to play in the modern socio-technical discipline of software delivery at scale. Modern organizations need to cultivate an ecosystem of semi-autonomous teams aligned to the flow of change. Managers can help to define and listen to the interactions between teams to detect gaps in capabilities and misplaced boundaries, thereby avoiding unintended consequences of Conway’s Law (the mirroring effect between team structures and software design). Managers can also help to identify, assess, and reduce cognitive load on teams, improving ownership and flow of change.

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Welcome!

  • 2

    The team as the means of delivery

  • 3

    Optimize for flow and feedback

    • What you will learn: flow and feedback

    • The four Accelerate metrics

    • Optimize for flow and feedback using team design

    • What is a Stream-aligned team?

    • Principles and behaviors for a Stream-aligned team

    • REFLECTION: what does your organization optimize for currently?

    • EXERCISE: Team dependency tracking

    • How managers can help optimize for flow and feedback
  • 4

    Conway’s Law

    • What you will learn: Conway’s Law

    • Conway’s Law - overview

    • The evidence for Conway’s Law

    • Implications of Conway’s Law

    • How managers and HR can accidentally drive system architecture

    • The Reverse Conway maneuver

    • Office seating layouts with Conway’s Law in mind

    • REFLECTION: how well does your organization currently account for Conway’s Law?

    • EXERCISE: Office seating layouts

    • How managers can help with Conway’s Law
  • 5

    Team cognitive load

    • What you will learn: team cognitive load

    • What is cognitive load?

    • What is team cognitive load?

    • How can we reduce extraneous cognitive load?

    • Avoid naive versions of “reduce cognitive load”

    • The four fundamental team types

    • REFLECTION: team types in your organization currently

    • How managers can help reduce team cognitive load
  • 6

    Platform teams

    • What you will learn: platform teams

    • What is a modern platform?

    • What makes a modern platform work?

    • What teams are inside a platform?

    • How should platform teams behave?

    • New skills needed for modern platforms

    • REFLECTION: how well defined are the modern platforms within your organization?

    • EXERCISE: Thin Platform wiki page

    • How managers can help make effective platforms
  • 7

    Enabling teams

    • What you will learn: enabling teams

    • What is an Enabling team?

    • When can an Enabling team be effective?

    • Enabling team activity as Boundary Spanning

    • REFLECTION: what opportunities are there for Enabling teams within your organization?

    • How managers can help encourage effective Enabling teams
  • 8

    Service Ownership

    • What you will learn: service ownership

    • Why feature delivery is not enough

    • Towards “lifetime service viability”

    • Extending “service” outside of software

    • REFLECTION: who owns the full service experience inside your organization?

    • How managers can help encourage effective service ownership
  • 9

    Closing

    • What else is needed to make this work?

    • What have we covered?
  • 10

    Quiz

    • Self check your understanding of Team Topologies.

  • 11

    Feedback, please!

    • Team Topologies for Managers - Course Feedback

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What people are saying about the Team Topologies for Managers course

Kiran Dosanjh

Senior Delivery Lead, Contino, Australia

"Thoroughly enjoyed the course. I found the Team-First Thinking, the four team patterns and practical steps to optimise for flow and feedback, really insightful. I highly recommend the course."

Csilla Bessenyei

Technology/Organization Change Consultant, UK

"Great overview and actionable ideas! I was happy to see that the concept of "lifetime service viability" was included. It covers areas of non-functional requirements which are often an afterthought, but crippling teams and services over time."

Rhafik Gonzalez

Software Engineering Manager, iFood, Brazil

"Great course for managers of all levels, disrupting the mindset of individual-centered approach for teams as a single unit of delivery. The course shows in a easy way how to understand the importance of team cognitive load in modern software development and how it can be managed using the proposed team topologies!"

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