About a year ago when I read the book Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow.
I was both intrigued and dismayed. Intrigued that someone had codified a way of working that seemed obvious from working in the software industry, albeit heavily influenced by Conway's Law and Cognitive Load. And also dismayed that this seemed to be described as the only 'humane' way to work. The last part hit a nerve because it implied that all other ways of working are invalid, inhumane, and slams the door shut on any process innovation or experimentation.
Today I listened to the following podcast by Software Engineering Radio: https://se-radio.net/2024/12/se-radio-646-matthew-skelton-on-team-topologies/. In the interview, the author of the book explains that there is a lot more depth than just outlining 4 team types and 3 ways of working. For this alone, I will endeavour to re-read the book this year and get a deeper insight. The author also said that another edition is coming out and that the focus on Cognitive Load needs to be re-examined as this is a more complex issue than implied by the book.
The lack of humility in both the book and the podcast interview is still something that bothers me. One of the reasons why I am such a huge fan of Dave Farley is that he 'keeps the door open' to changing his mind and admitting that he is wrong. 'Strong beliefs, weakly held' is a saying that I think sums up my approach.
Unfortunately, we (as an industry) appear to hold on to ideas for longer than perhaps we should when it comes to processes, communication, team structure, ways of working, etc. Either good books on processes & communication are so far and few between - that we cling to the old because we found some nuggets of wisdom and we're not sure when the next industry changing idea will come along. Or perhaps it's just really hard to change how people think and act. Old habits die hard for a reason.
Anyway, this post has turned in to a late night rambling stream of consciousness which is not what I had in mind when I started writing this. On the whole I do recommend this book - it has some very interesting and deep ideas. Implementing them will take a significant amount of time and will result in ripple effects across the origination.
If you have made it this far, other books that I recommend are:
- Mythical Man Month, Fred Brooks
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink
- Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, Lister & DeMarco
- Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders, L. David Marquet
- Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, Lawrence Gonzales
- Lessons in Leadership: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
I've read all of the above books (and many more). These ones have been the greatest influences on me to be a better (project) manager.
