Team Shape Assessment
Evaluate organizational design for fast flow. Source: Skelton & Pais (Team Topologies).
Assessment Workflow
1. Map Current Teams
For each team, classify:
- Stream-aligned: Owns a user journey or business domain (most teams should be this)
- Enabling: Helps other teams acquire capabilities (temporary engagement)
- Complicated subsystem: Deep specialist knowledge (only when cognitive load justifies)
- Platform: Internal product that reduces cognitive load for stream-aligned teams
2. Evaluate Cognitive Load
For each team, assess:
- Intrinsic load: Problem complexity (can't reduce, only manage)
- Extraneous load: Bad tools/processes (SHOULD reduce -- platform teams help here)
- : Learning new relevant things (encourage)