This document discusses remote team interactions using Team Topologies concepts. It emphasizes that understanding dependencies between teams is vital for remote work. It also discusses setting boundaries between teams, defining purposeful interactions, and growing feedback to improve remote collaboration. Effective remote interactions require tools, ground rules, and defining each team's purpose and communication preferences through a "Team API".

1. TeamTopologies.com
@TeamTopologies
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
co-authors of Team Topologies
SEAM online, 13 May 2020
Remote-First
Team Interactions
with Team Topologies

2. TeamTopologies.com
@TeamTopologies
Manuel Pais
co-author of Team Topologies
Remote-First Team
Interactions

3. Remote Work ?
+
3

4. Remote Work
tools
+
ground rules and practices
4

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

6. Team Topologies
6
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press (Sep 2019)
Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book

7. 7
Team Dependencies
Setting Team Boundaries
Purposeful Interactions
Growing Feedback

8. Team Dependencies
8

9. 9
In a remote-first context,
it’s vital to understand
who is working on what

10. Team API
10

11. “For effective team-first ownership
of software, teams need to
continuously define, advertise, test,
and evolve their Team API”
Team Topologies, p.48
11

12. Team API
12
● Artifacts owned by the team
● Versioning & testing approach
● Wiki and documentation
● Practices and principles
● Roadmap & priorities
● Communication preferences (when/how)

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. 14
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-API-template

15. Tracking Dependencies
15

16. Team dependencies tracking
16
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-Dependencies-Tracking

17. “Making Work Visible”
17

18. 18
Eliminate blocking dependencies.
Mitigate slow dependencies.
Keep healthy dependencies.

19. Building Networks
19

20. 20

21. 21

22. 22
Internal Tech
Conferences
Victoria Morgan-Smith and
Matthew Skelton
Book | Training
InternalTechConf.com

23. Setting Team
Boundaries
23

24. Group Trust Levels
24

25. “an individual’s social network
(meaningful relationships)
is typically in the order of
100–200 individuals”
- Robin Dunbar
25
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.150292

26. 26

27. 27

28. 28
Trust dynamics can change
when crossing a Dunbar
boundary. Expect different
rules & non-linear effects.

29. 29
Private car salesCommercial car sales
Car leasing
[example]From Team Topologies,
chapter 3 (page 53)

30. 30

31. 31

32. 32
Private car sales
Commercial car sales
Car leasing

33. 33
# 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
...

34. 34

35. Team-focused conventions
35
● team channel: team topology and name
● (temp) interaction channel: teams + purpose
● support channel: support + service name
● username: name + role + team + topology

36. 36
Team-focused conventions
increase discoverability
and reduce cognitive load
on communications.

37. Purposeful
Interactions
37

38. Infinite Collaboration
(Myth Busting)
38

39. 39
We cannot and should not
expect to talk to everyone
else (person or team)

40. 40
Well-defined interactions
are key to effective teams

41. 41
Team Interaction Modes
Collaboration: 2 teams working together
X-as-a-Service: 1 provides, 1 consumes
Facilitating: 1 team helps another

42. 42

43. 43
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Team-API-template

44. Stream-aligned team 1
44
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)

45. Use awkwardness in team
interactions as a sensing
mechanism for evolution
45

46. Org Chart as
Communication Path
(Myth Busting)
46

47. 47
Org Chart
vs
Reality

48. 48
The Org Chart Problem
Source: “Team of Teams”, McChrystal, 2015

49. “the key to successful
knowledge work is in the
interactions between the
informal structure and the
value creation structure”
-- Niels Pflaeging
49

50. let real needs drive the
interactions between teams,
not formal processes
or org chart decisions
50

51. 51

52. Clarify Communication
Purpose & Channels
52

53. 53
https://github.com/TeamTopologies/Thin-Platform-template

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

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

56. Incident Response
56

57. “...three-tier support should be
replaced with Swarming”
– Jon Stevens-Hall, 2016
57
https://medium.com/@JonHall_/itsm-devops-and-why-the-three
-tier-structure-must-be-replaced-with-swarming-91e76ba22304

58. 58

59. 59

60. 60
# swarm-severity-1
# swarm-local-dispatch
...
Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

61. Growing Feedback
61

62. 62

63. 63
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/twilio-devops/

64. 64

65. Team Topologies
65
Organizing business and
technology teams for fast flow
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
IT Revolution Press
Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book

66. Workbook
coming soon...
Team Topologies
for Remote Teams
66
for Remote
Teams
Sign up for news: teamtopologies.com/newsletter
Icon by Pixel perfect from www.flaticon.com

67. Remote-
Friendly
Training
🠊 teamtopologies.com/training
67

68. Remote-Friendly
Assessments
🠊 teamtopologies.com/assessments
68

69. Team Topologies for Project Managers
69
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

70. Resources
70
🠊 teamtopologies.com/remote-first
(links, slides, video)

71. Thank you!
71
Matthew Skelton, Conflux
@matthewpskelton
Manuel Pais, Independent
@manupaisable
teamtopologies.com