From a talk at Iris Software Group in September 2020 We know that team-based software delivery can be very effective but how can we promote and enable team-based approaches for organisations that are fully remote? What should teams think about and what patterns can teams adopt to be effective when no-one is in the office? Based on the ideas from the book Team Topologies, authors Manuel Pais and Matthew Skelton will present some useful approaches to clarify and evolve inter-team interactions and communication in this remote-first world.

1. TeamTopologies.com
@TeamTopologies
Matthew Skelton
co-author of Team Topologies - @matthewpskelton
IRIS Software Group, UK - 07 September 2020
Remote-First
Team Interactions
with Team Topologies

2. Remote Work ?
+
2

3. 3
https://tomgeraghty.co.uk/index.php/psycholo
gical-safety-in-distributed-and-remote-teams/

4. Remote Work
tools
+ psychological safety
+ ground rules and practices
4

5. 5
Poor remote interactions
can kill the
“<LATEST> transformation”.

6. 6

7. Team Topologies
7
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press (Sep 2019)
Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book

8. 8
Team Dependencies
Setting Team Boundaries
Purposeful Interactions
Growing Feedback

9. Team Dependencies
9

10. 10
In a remote-first context,
it’s vital to understand
who is working on what

11. Team API
11

12. “For effective team-first ownership
of software, teams need to
continuously define, advertise, test,
and evolve their Team API”
Team Topologies, p.48
12

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

14. Team API
14
● Artifacts owned by the team
● Versioning & testing approach
● Wiki and documentation
● Practices and principles
● Roadmap & priorities
● Communication preferences (when/how)

15. 15
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-API-template

16. Tracking Dependencies
16

17. Team dependencies tracking
17
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-Dependencies-Tracking

18. “Making Work Visible”
18

19. 19
Eliminate blocking dependencies.
Mitigate slow dependencies.
Keep healthy dependencies.

20. Building Networks
20

21. 21

22. 22

23. 23
Internal Tech
Conferences
Victoria Morgan-Smith and
Matthew Skelton
Book | Training
InternalTechConf.com

24. Setting Team
Boundaries
24

25. Group Trust Levels
25

26. “an individual’s social network
(meaningful relationships)
is typically in the order of
100–200 individuals”
- Robin Dunbar
26
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.150292

27. 27

28. 28

29. 29
Trust dynamics can change
when crossing a Dunbar
boundary. Expect different
rules & non-linear effects.

30. 30
Private car salesCommercial car sales
Car leasing
[example]From Team Topologies,
chapter 3 (page 53)

31. 31

32. 32

33. 33
Private car sales
Commercial car sales
Car leasing

34. 34
# 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
...

35. 35

36. Team-focused conventions
36
● team channel: team topology and name
● (temp) interaction channel: teams + purpose
● support channel: support + service name
● username: name + role + team + topology

37. 37
Team-focused conventions
increase discoverability
and reduce cognitive load
on communications.

38. Purposeful
Interactions
38

39. Infinite Collaboration
(Myth Busting)
39

40. 40
We cannot and should not
expect to talk to everyone
else (person or team)

41. 41
Well-defined interactions
are key to effective teams

42. 42
Team Interaction Modes
Collaboration: 2 teams working together
X-as-a-Service: 1 provides, 1 consumes
Facilitating: 1 team helps another

43. 43

44. 44
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-API-template

45. Stream-aligned team 1
45
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)

46. Use awkwardness in team
interactions as a sensing
mechanism for evolution
46

47. Org Chart as
Communication Path
(Myth Busting)
47

48. 48
Org Chart
vs
Reality

49. 49
The Org Chart Problem
Source: “Team of Teams”, McChrystal, 2015

50. “the key to successful
knowledge work is in the
interactions between the
informal structure and the
value creation structure”
-- Niels Pflaeging
50

51. let real needs drive the
interactions between teams,
not formal processes
or org chart decisions
51

52. 52

53. Clarify Communication
Purpose & Channels
53

54. 54
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

55. 55
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

56. 56
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

57. Growing Feedback
57

58. 58

59. 59
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/twilio-devops/

60. 60

61. Team Topologies
61
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press
Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book

62. Workbook
coming soon...
Team Topologies
for Remote Teams
62
for Remote
Teams
Sign up for news: teamtopologies.com/newsletter
Icon by Pixel perfect from www.flaticon.com

63. Remote-
Friendly
Training
🠊 teamtopologies.com/training
63

64. Team Topologies for Project Managers
64
ascent.pmi.org
self-paced 4-hour online course
TT4PM20
20% discount code
Other courses from:
Peter Drucker, Jeff
Gothelf & Josh Seiden,
Patty Azzarello, and
others

65. Remote-Friendly
Assessments
🠊 teamtopologies.com/assessments
65

66. Free Resources
66
Remote-first interactions
teamtopologies.com/remote-first
Free tools & templates
github.com/teamtopologies

67. Thank you!
67
Matthew Skelton, Conflux
@matthewpskelton
Manuel Pais, Independent
@manupaisable
teamtopologies.com