Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow

by Matthew Skelton

What kind of behaviors and outcomes do we expect to see in an effective platform team? A platform team uses strong collaboration with stream-aligned teams to understand their needs. A platform team relies on fast prototyping techniques and involves stream-aligned team members for fast feedback on what works and what does not. A platform team has a strong focus on usability and reliability for their services (treating the platform as a product), and regularly assesses if the services are still fit for purpose and usable. A platform team leads by example: using the services they provide internally (when applicable), partnering with stream-aligned teams and enabling teams, and consuming lower level platforms (owned by other platform teams) whenever possible. A platform team understands that adoption of internal new services, like new technologies, is not immediate, but instead evolves along an adoption curve.