team-topology-design

Team Topologies Design

A modern approach to team organization that optimizes for fast flow of change while managing cognitive load.

When to Use This Skill

Keywords: team topologies, stream-aligned, platform, enabling, complicated subsystem, interaction mode, collaboration, x-as-a-service, facilitating, cognitive load, Inverse Conway, Conway's Law, team API, team boundaries, fast flow

Use this skill when:

• Designing or reorganizing team structures
• Aligning teams with software architecture
• Reducing cognitive load on teams
• Improving flow of change delivery
• Applying Inverse Conway Maneuver
• Defining team interactions and boundaries
• Planning organizational evolution

Conway's Law

"Any organization that designs a system will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure." — Melvin Conway, 1968

Implications

conways_law:
  observation: "Architecture mirrors communication structures"

  implications:
    - "Team structure shapes system architecture"
    - "Siloed teams create siloed systems"
    - "Cross-functional teams create integrated systems"
    - "Team boundaries become system boundaries"

  inverse_conway:
    principle: "Design the organization to match the desired architecture"
    approach: "If you want a certain system architecture, structure teams accordingly"
    warning: "Architecture and team structure will drift back together over time"

The Four Team Types

1. Stream-Aligned Team

stream_aligned:
  definition: "Team aligned to a single, valuable stream of work"

  characteristics:
    - "End-to-end responsibility for a flow of value"
    - "Cross-functional (dev, ops, test, UX, etc.)"
    - "Long-lived, product-focused"
    - "Owns one or more bounded contexts"
    - "Primary team type (majority of teams)"

  size: "5-9 members"

  examples:
    - "Customer onboarding team"
    - "Checkout experience team"
    - "Mobile app team"
    - "B2B integration team"

  owns:
    - "Customer-facing features"
    - "Specific user journeys"
    - "Bounded context(s)"
    - "Full software lifecycle"

  does_not_own:
    - "Shared infrastructure"
    - "Complex specialist components"
    - "Cross-cutting capabilities"

  success_metrics:
    - "Lead time for changes"
    - "Deployment frequency"
    - "Customer satisfaction"
    - "Time to restore service"

2. Platform Team

platform_team:
  definition: "Team providing internal services to reduce cognitive load on stream-aligned teams"

  characteristics:
    - "Treats internal teams as customers"
    - "Provides self-service capabilities"
    - "Focuses on developer experience"
    - "Operates as internal product team"
    - "Reduces duplication across teams"

  size: "5-9 members (can scale with platform size)"

  examples:
    - "Developer platform team"
    - "Infrastructure team"
    - "Data platform team"
    - "ML platform team"

  provides:
    - "Self-service infrastructure"
    - "CI/CD pipelines"
    - "Monitoring and observability"
    - "Common libraries and frameworks"

  does_not_do:
    - "Build features for end users"
    - "Dictate how teams work"
    - "Create bottlenecks"

  success_metrics:
    - "Time to provision resources"
    - "Platform adoption rate"
    - "Developer satisfaction score"
    - "Reduction in support tickets"

3. Enabling Team

enabling_team:
  definition: "Team helping stream-aligned teams adopt new capabilities"

  characteristics:
    - "Temporary engagement with other teams"
    - "Upskills rather than builds"
    - "Identifies patterns and best practices"
    - "Cross-pollinates knowledge"
    - "Limited lifespan with each team"

  size: "3-6 members (small, specialized)"

  examples:
    - "DevOps enablement team"
    - "Security champions team"
    - "Architecture guidance team"
    - "Agile coaching team"

  activities:
    - "Training and workshops"
    - "Pair programming / mob sessions"
    - "Creating guides and playbooks"
    - "Identifying impediments"

  does_not_do:
    - "Build production systems"
    - "Permanent embedding"
    - "Gatekeeping"

  engagement_pattern:
    initial: "Assess team needs"
    active: "Collaborate intensively (weeks)"
    handoff: "Leave team self-sufficient"
    follow_up: "Periodic check-ins"

  success_metrics:
    - "Capability adoption rate"
    - "Time to team independence"
    - "Practice spread across org"

4. Complicated Subsystem Team

complicated_subsystem:
  definition: "Team responsible for component requiring deep specialist knowledge"

  characteristics:
    - "Heavy specialist expertise required"
    - "Complexity would overwhelm stream teams"
    - "Clear interfaces to other teams"
    - "Rare team type (most orgs have 0-2)"

  size: "3-9 members (specialist-heavy)"

  examples:
    - "Video encoding team"
    - "Financial modeling team"
    - "Machine learning algorithm team"
    - "Real-time data processing team"

  when_appropriate:
    - "Math/science-heavy components"
    - "Regulatory complexity"
    - "Deep domain expertise"
    - "Years of specialized learning needed"

  when_inappropriate:
    - "General complexity any team could learn"
    - "Components that should be platform"
    - "Historical knowledge hoarding"

  success_metrics:
    - "Interface stability"
    - "Accuracy/performance of subsystem"
    - "Support burden on consumers"

The Three Interaction Modes

Collaboration

collaboration_mode:
  definition: "Two teams working closely together on a shared goal"

  characteristics:
    - "High bandwidth communication"
    - "Shared discovery and innovation"
    - "Blurred boundaries temporarily"
    - "Intensive but time-boxed"

  appropriate_for:
    - "Rapid discovery phases"
    - "New integrations"
    - "Novel problems"
    - "Building shared understanding"

  duration: "Time-limited (weeks to months)"

  warning_signs:
    - "Collaboration lasting more than 6 months"
    - "Permanent dependency"
    - "Teams can't work independently"

  transition_to: "X-as-a-Service after discovery"

X-as-a-Service

xaas_mode:
  definition: "One team provides service to another with clear interface"

  characteristics:
    - "Clear API/contract"
    - "Minimal coordination needed"
    - "Provider team owns service evolution"
    - "Consumer team uses without deep involvement"

  appropriate_for:
    - "Mature, stable interfaces"
    - "Platform to stream-aligned"
    - "Reducing cognitive load"
    - "Scaling interactions"

  success_factors:
    - "Well-documented API"
    - "Self-service provisioning"
    - "SLA agreements"
    - "Clear support channels"

  anti_patterns:
    - "Too many meetings for simple requests"
    - "Ticket queue for everything"
    - "Hidden complexity"

Facilitating

facilitating_mode:
  definition: "One team helps another learn or adopt capabilities"

  characteristics:
    - "Teaching over doing"
    - "Temporary, with handoff"
    - "Goal is independence"
    - "Enabling team primary mode"

  appropriate_for:
    - "Capability building"
    - "New practice adoption"
    - "Impediment removal"
    - "Cross-pollination"

  engagement_cycle:
    assess: "Understand team needs"
    teach: "Active coaching/training"
    support: "Available for questions"
    exit: "Team is self-sufficient"

  anti_patterns:
    - "Permanent dependency"
    - "Doing work for them"
    - "Gatekeeping knowledge"

Cognitive Load

Types of Cognitive Load

cognitive_load_types:
  intrinsic:
    definition: "Load from the problem space itself"
    examples:
      - "Business domain complexity"
      - "Technical complexity of task"
      - "Regulatory requirements"
    strategy: "Can't eliminate, but can train for it"

  extraneous:
    definition: "Load from environment/process"
    examples:
      - "Legacy system quirks"
      - "Poor tooling"
      - "Unclear requirements"
    strategy: "Minimize through platforms, automation"

  germane:
    definition: "Load from learning and growing"
    examples:
      - "Learning new technologies"
      - "Exploring new domains"
      - "Building mental models"
    strategy: "Invest in this - it builds capability"

Cognitive Load Assessment

cognitive_load_assessment:
  questions:
    domain_complexity:
      - "How many domains does the team own?"
      - "How deep is the domain knowledge required?"
      - "How often do domain rules change?"

    technical_complexity:
      - "How many systems does the team maintain?"
      - "What's the technology diversity?"
      - "How much legacy code exists?"

    environmental_friction:
      - "How much time spent on non-value work?"
      - "How many other teams must be coordinated with?"
      - "How painful is the deployment process?"

  scoring:
    1_3: "Manageable - team can focus on value"
    4_6: "Elevated - some overhead impacting flow"
    7_9: "Overloaded - need to reduce scope"
    10: "Critical - team cannot function effectively"

  red_flags:
    - "Team owns more than 3 bounded contexts"
    - "More than 50% time on coordination"
    - "High defect rate from context switching"
    - "Burnout indicators"

Team Size Heuristics

team_sizing:
  dunbar_numbers:
    5: "Core working group"
    15: "Extended team with coordination"
    50: "Department boundary"
    150: "Organization boundary"

  two_pizza_rule:
    description: "Team should be fed by two pizzas"
    practical_size: "5-9 members"
    rationale: "Communication overhead grows exponentially"

  brooks_law:
    statement: "Adding people to late project makes it later"
    implication: "Teams should be right-sized from start"

Inverse Conway Maneuver

Principle

inverse_conway:
  definition: "Design organization to achieve desired architecture"

  process:
    1: "Define desired target architecture"
    2: "Identify bounded contexts and their relationships"
    3: "Design team structure to mirror desired architecture"
    4: "Allow teams to evolve the architecture they own"

  example:
    desired_architecture: "Independent microservices with clear boundaries"
    team_design: "Stream-aligned teams owning 1-2 services each"
    platform: "Shared infrastructure as platform team"
    result: "Architecture naturally evolves to match team structure"

Implementation Steps

inverse_conway_implementation:
  step_1_architecture_vision:
    activities:
      - "Define target bounded contexts"
      - "Map integration patterns between contexts"
      - "Identify shared capabilities (platform)"
      - "Document interfaces and dependencies"
    output: "Target architecture diagram with boundaries"

  step_2_team_mapping:
    activities:
      - "Map bounded contexts to potential teams"
      - "Identify platform team needs"
      - "Assess enabling team requirements"
      - "Flag complicated subsystem candidates"
    output: "Initial team structure proposal"

  step_3_cognitive_load_validation:
    activities:
      - "Assess load per proposed team"
      - "Adjust scope if overloaded"
      - "Validate skill availability"
      - "Plan for enabling support"
    output: "Validated team structure"

  step_4_interaction_design:
    activities:
      - "Define initial interaction modes"
      - "Identify collaboration needs"
      - "Design platform interfaces"
      - "Plan team APIs"
    output: "Team interaction map"

  step_5_evolution_plan:
    activities:
      - "Define transition timeline"
      - "Plan skill development"
      - "Design feedback mechanisms"
      - "Establish review cadence"
    output: "Organization transition roadmap"

Team API

Definition

team_api:
  definition: "Explicit interface for how other teams interact with a team"

  components:
    service_offerings:
      - "What the team provides"
      - "How to consume services"
      - "SLAs and commitments"

    communication:
      - "Primary contact channels"
      - "Response time expectations"
      - "Escalation paths"

    ways_of_working:
      - "Collaboration preferences"
      - "Meeting availability"
      - "Decision-making process"

    code_and_artifacts:
      - "Repository locations"
      - "Documentation"
      - "API specifications"

  benefits:
    - "Reduces ambiguity"
    - "Scales interactions"
    - "Enables asynchronous work"
    - "Supports team autonomy"

Team API Template

# Team API: {Team Name}

## Mission
{Team's purpose in 1-2 sentences}

## Services We Provide
| Service | Description | How to Request | SLA |
|---------|-------------|----------------|-----|
| {Service} | {What it does} | {Channel} | {Response time} |

## What We Own
- {Bounded context(s)}
- {Systems/repos}
- {Documentation location}

## Interaction Preferences
- **Preferred contact:** {Slack channel, email, etc.}
- **Office hours:** {When available for synchronous discussion}
- **Request process:** {How to make requests}

## Current Interaction Modes
| Team | Mode | Duration | Notes |
|------|------|----------|-------|
| {Team} | {Collaboration/X-as-a-Service/Facilitating} | {Timeframe} | {Context} |

## Dependencies
### We Depend On
- {Team/Service}: {What we need}

### Who Depends On Us
- {Team}: {What they need from us}

## Metrics We Track
- {Metric 1}
- {Metric 2}

## Feedback Channels
- {How to provide feedback}

Team Evolution Patterns

Evolution Triggers

evolution_triggers:
  growing_load:
    signal: "Team cognitive load increasing"
    options:
      - "Split team along bounded contexts"
      - "Create platform team for shared concerns"
      - "Spin off complicated subsystem"

  maturing_collaboration:
    signal: "Collaboration mode lasting too long"
    action: "Transition to X-as-a-Service"

  repeated_enablement:
    signal: "Same capability needed by multiple teams"
    action: "Move to platform team"

  specialist_bottleneck:
    signal: "Specialist knowledge creating bottleneck"
    options:
      - "Create complicated subsystem team"
      - "Enable teams to build capability"

Splitting Teams

team_splitting:
  when_to_split:
    - "Team owns too many bounded contexts (>3)"
    - "Cognitive load consistently high"
    - "Team size exceeding 9"
    - "Clear domain boundary exists"

  how_to_split:
    identify_boundary: "Find natural seam in domain/code"
    ensure_viability: "Each new team must be viable alone"
    plan_transition: "Gradual handoff, not big bang"
    maintain_interfaces: "Keep X-as-a-Service with old team"

  anti_patterns:
    - "Splitting by technology layer (UI team, API team)"
    - "Splitting without clear ownership"
    - "Creating too many tiny teams"

Team Merging

team_merging:
  when_to_merge:
    - "Too much collaboration overhead"
    - "Teams too small to be effective"
    - "Bounded contexts closely related"
    - "Artificial boundaries causing friction"

  how_to_merge:
    assess_fit: "Will combined load be manageable?"
    plan_integration: "How will skills combine?"
    redefine_scope: "New team's bounded context(s)"
    update_interactions: "Revise team API"

.NET/C# Context

Team-to-Architecture Alignment

namespace Organization.TeamDesign;

// Model for team topology design
public record Team
{
    public required string Name { get; init; }
    public required TeamType Type { get; init; }
    public required string Mission { get; init; }
    public required int Size { get; init; }
    public List<string> BoundedContexts { get; init; } = [];
    public CognitiveLoadAssessment? CognitiveLoad { get; init; }
    public TeamApi? Api { get; init; }
}

public enum TeamType
{
    StreamAligned,
    Platform,
    Enabling,
    ComplicatedSubsystem
}

public record TeamInteraction
{
    public required string FromTeam { get; init; }
    public required string ToTeam { get; init; }
    public required InteractionMode Mode { get; init; }
    public string? Purpose { get; init; }
    public DateOnly? StartDate { get; init; }
    public DateOnly? PlannedEndDate { get; init; }
}

public enum InteractionMode
{
    Collaboration,
    XAsAService,
    Facilitating
}

public record CognitiveLoadAssessment
{
    public required DateOnly AssessmentDate { get; init; }
    public required int DomainComplexityScore { get; init; } // 1-10
    public required int TechnicalComplexityScore { get; init; } // 1-10
    public required int EnvironmentalFrictionScore { get; init; } // 1-10
    public int TotalScore => DomainComplexityScore +
                             TechnicalComplexityScore +
                             EnvironmentalFrictionScore;
    public LoadLevel Level => TotalScore switch
    {
        <= 9 => LoadLevel.Manageable,
        <= 18 => LoadLevel.Elevated,
        <= 24 => LoadLevel.High,
        _ => LoadLevel.Critical
    };
    public string? Notes { get; init; }
    public List<string> Recommendations { get; init; } = [];
}

public enum LoadLevel
{
    Manageable,
    Elevated,
    High,
    Critical
}

public record TeamApi
{
    public required string TeamName { get; init; }
    public required string Mission { get; init; }
    public List<ServiceOffering> Services { get; init; } = [];
    public CommunicationPreferences? Communication { get; init; }
    public List<string> OwnedSystems { get; init; } = [];
    public List<Dependency> DependsOn { get; init; } = [];
    public List<Dependency> DependedOnBy { get; init; } = [];
}

public record ServiceOffering(
    string Name,
    string Description,
    string RequestChannel,
    string Sla
);

public record CommunicationPreferences(
    string PreferredChannel,
    string OfficeHours,
    string RequestProcess
);

public record Dependency(
    string TeamName,
    string Description
);

Team Topology Analyzer

public class TeamTopologyAnalyzer
{
    public TeamTopologyAssessment Analyze(IEnumerable<Team> teams, IEnumerable<TeamInteraction> interactions)
    {
        var teamList = teams.ToList();
        var interactionList = interactions.ToList();

        return new TeamTopologyAssessment
        {
            TotalTeams = teamList.Count,
            TeamsByType = teamList.GroupBy(t => t.Type)
                .ToDictionary(g => g.Key, g => g.Count()),
            StreamAlignedRatio = CalculateStreamAlignedRatio(teamList),
            CognitiveLoadWarnings = IdentifyCognitiveLoadWarnings(teamList),
            InteractionConcerns = IdentifyInteractionConcerns(interactionList),
            Recommendations = GenerateRecommendations(teamList, interactionList)
        };
    }

    private decimal CalculateStreamAlignedRatio(List<Team> teams)
    {
        if (teams.Count == 0) return 0;
        var streamAligned = teams.Count(t => t.Type == TeamType.StreamAligned);
        return (decimal)streamAligned / teams.Count;
    }

    private List<string> IdentifyCognitiveLoadWarnings(List<Team> teams)
    {
        var warnings = new List<string>();

        foreach (var team in teams)
        {
            if (team.CognitiveLoad?.Level >= LoadLevel.High)
            {
                warnings.Add($"Team '{team.Name}' has {team.CognitiveLoad.Level} cognitive load");
            }

            if (team.BoundedContexts.Count > 3)
            {
                warnings.Add($"Team '{team.Name}' owns {team.BoundedContexts.Count} bounded contexts (recommended max: 3)");
            }

            if (team.Size > 9)
            {
                warnings.Add($"Team '{team.Name}' has {team.Size} members (exceeds two-pizza size)");
            }
        }

        return warnings;
    }

    private List<string> IdentifyInteractionConcerns(List<TeamInteraction> interactions)
    {
        var concerns = new List<string>();

        // Check for long-running collaborations
        var longCollaborations = interactions
            .Where(i => i.Mode == InteractionMode.Collaboration)
            .Where(i => i.StartDate.HasValue &&
                        i.StartDate.Value.AddMonths(6) < DateOnly.FromDateTime(DateTime.Today));

        foreach (var collab in longCollaborations)
        {
            concerns.Add($"Collaboration between '{collab.FromTeam}' and '{collab.ToTeam}' may be lasting too long - consider transitioning to X-as-a-Service");
        }

        return concerns;
    }

    private List<string> GenerateRecommendations(List<Team> teams, List<TeamInteraction> interactions)
    {
        var recommendations = new List<string>();

        // Check stream-aligned ratio
        var ratio = CalculateStreamAlignedRatio(teams);
        if (ratio < 0.6m)
        {
            recommendations.Add("Consider increasing stream-aligned team ratio (currently " +
                              $"{ratio:P0}, recommended 60-80%)");
        }

        // Check for missing platform teams
        var hasInfraOverhead = teams
            .Where(t => t.Type == TeamType.StreamAligned)
            .Any(t => t.CognitiveLoad?.EnvironmentalFrictionScore > 5);

        if (hasInfraOverhead && !teams.Any(t => t.Type == TeamType.Platform))
        {
            recommendations.Add("Consider creating a platform team to reduce infrastructure cognitive load on stream-aligned teams");
        }

        return recommendations;
    }
}

public record TeamTopologyAssessment
{
    public int TotalTeams { get; init; }
    public Dictionary<TeamType, int> TeamsByType { get; init; } = new();
    public decimal StreamAlignedRatio { get; init; }
    public List<string> CognitiveLoadWarnings { get; init; } = [];
    public List<string> InteractionConcerns { get; init; } = [];
    public List<string> Recommendations { get; init; } = [];
}

Output Format

Team Topology Document

team_topology:
  metadata:
    organization: "{Org Name}"
    date: "{ISO-8601}"
    version: "1.0"

  teams:
    stream_aligned:
      - name: "{Team Name}"
        mission: "{Mission}"
        bounded_contexts:
          - "{Context 1}"
        size: {N}
        cognitive_load: "{Manageable/Elevated/High}"

    platform:
      - name: "{Platform Team}"
        mission: "{Mission}"
        services:
          - "{Service 1}"
        size: {N}

    enabling:
      - name: "{Enabling Team}"
        focus: "{Current focus area}"
        engaged_with:
          - "{Team 1}"
        size: {N}

    complicated_subsystem:
      - name: "{Subsystem Team}"
        domain: "{Specialty domain}"
        interfaces_to:
          - "{Consumer team 1}"
        size: {N}

  interactions:
    - from: "{Team A}"
      to: "{Team B}"
      mode: "{Collaboration/X-as-a-Service/Facilitating}"
      purpose: "{Why this interaction}"
      status: "{Active/Planned/Ending}"

  evolution_plans:
    - trigger: "{What triggers change}"
      action: "{What will change}"
      timeline: "{When}"

Integration with Other Skills

Upstream

• context-mapping - Bounded context → team mapping
• wardley-mapping - Evolution stage → team type alignment
• togaf-guidance - Enterprise architecture context

Downstream

• modular-architecture - Code organization matching teams
• fitness-functions - Team boundary enforcement
• adr-management - Document team structure decisions

References

For additional guidance:

• Anti-Patterns
• Assessment Templates

Version History

• v1.0.0 (2025-12-26): Initial release - Team Topology Design skill

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Last Updated: 2025-12-26