Team Topologies
A foundational framework for team types and collaboration patterns
We've chosen to make Team Topologies a foundational element of the Dotwork POM Starter Pack. Originally developed by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais, Team Topologies is a framework that helps organizations define:
- Types of teams, and
- Collaboration patterns between teams.
The Four Fundamental Team Types
- Stream-Aligned Teams – aligned to a flow of work from a segment of the business (e.g. customer segment, product feature, etc.)
- Platform Teams – provide internal services to accelerate other teams and reduce cognitive load.
- Enabling Teams – help stream-aligned teams overcome obstacles, adopt new skills, or improve practices.
- Complicated Subsystem Teams – own and evolve areas of the system requiring deep specialist knowledge.
Three Primary Collaboration Patterns
- Collaboration – teams work together closely for a defined period, often to discover or solve something.
- X-as-a-Service – one team provides a well-defined service that another team consumes with minimal interaction.
- Facilitating – one team helps another team acquire missing capabilities, then steps away.
Why Team Topologies?
There are countless frameworks available to describe team structure and interaction—but we chose Team Topologies for several reasons:
- It's simple, but deep. The model is accessible and intuitive, yet capable of describing complex real-world dynamics.
- It's widely recognized. The language and concepts are increasingly familiar to product and engineering leaders.
- It clarifies team purpose. It helps organizations align on why certain teams exist and how they should be supported and evaluated.
One of the most valuable aspects of the Team Topologies model is how it addresses the transitional nature of many teams. For example, a team may aspire to be a Platform Team but is just beginning that journey. Or a team may find itself simultaneously performing Stream-Aligned work, enabling others, and managing a complicated subsystem. This is common—many teams wear multiple hats.
To support real-world use of Team Topologies, the Dotwork Starter Pack includes the ability to track and evolve team identity over time:
Core Objects
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
| Team Topologies | The four official team types defined by the framework. These are reference objects within the Starter Pack. |
| Collaboration Patterns | The three core types of team-to-team collaboration, also defined by the framework. |
| Team Topology Assignments | Teams can self-identify one or more topologies they currently represent. Each assignment includes a 1–5 maturity level with contextual prompts to help teams assess where they are in their evolution. |
| Collaboration Pattern Assignments | Teams can document their current collaboration relationships with other teams. These links can be updated, annotated, and connected to specific work. Teams can also note friction, desired changes, or long-running collaboration agreements. |
Why This Matters
Most organizations spend too little time reflecting on team design and interaction patterns. Yet these decisions profoundly shape how work flows, how teams are supported, how funding is allocated, and how efforts map to strategic goals.
By using Team Topologies, you create a shared language to talk about team purpose, maturity, and collaboration. This clarity helps surface structural tensions, support development plans, and align operational decisions with long-term intent.