Team structures

How to organise teams

DevOps Topologies

So what team structure is right for DevOps to flourish? Clearly, there is no magic conformation or team topology which will suit every organisation. However, it is useful to characterise a small number of different models for team structures, some of which suit certain organisations better than others.

Service Blueprints: Definition

Service blueprints visualize organizational processes in order to optimize how a business delivers a user experience.

Unlocking value with durable teams

When a team is just there for a short, or uncertain, length of time, then in order to make any impact, they have to stick to small, incremental improvements. Working on the big bets which might reap huge rewards is too risky — the team may be disbanded before they’ve had a chance to show the benefit. If they have a longer lifespan they are free to try some things that are higher risk. Some will fail, but some will lead to the big changes that lead to exponential growth.

Good Product Team / Bad Product Team

There is a profound difference between how the very best product companies create technology products, and the rest. And I don’t mean minor differences. Everything from how the leaders behave, to the level of empowerment of teams, to how the organization thinks about funding, staffing and producing products, down to how product, design and engineering collaborate to discover effective solutions for their customers.

Succession planning

Succession planning is thinking through how the organization would function without you, documenting those gaps, and starting to fill them in. It’s awkward enough to talk about that it doesn’t get much discussion, but it’s a foundational skill for building an enduring organization.

Introducing SREs, TPMs and other specialized roles

Things to consider when introducing a specialised role