In ADI 13 Manuel Pais discusses the background and evolution of Team Topologies, emphasizing that the book focuses on achieving a fast flow of value to customers by thoughtfully organizing “teams of teams.” This approach goes beyond simply speeding up individual teams, highlighting that true DevOps success hinges on continuous feedback loops and the sustainability of teams’ workloads.

A major theme is cognitive load—the mental effort required of teams to handle their responsibilities. Manuel introduces “Temperature,” a new product designed to measure and manage cognitive load. By identifying specific drivers behind overload (e.g., too many stakeholders or unwieldy infrastructure concerns), organizations can reshape team responsibilities and invest in platform teams that reduce complexity for product (stream-aligned) teams.

Manuel reviews the four core team types from Team Topologies:

Stream-aligned teams focused on end-to-end value delivery for a particular product or service. Platform teams providing internal services to reduce cognitive load. Enabling teams bridging skill gaps and mentoring other teams. Complicated subsystem teams dedicated to specialized, complex parts of a system. He underscores that success with Team Topologies often involves incremental organizational evolution rather than large-scale, one-time reorgs. Leaders must understand value streams, use flow metrics and DORA metrics appropriately, and ensure continuous learning. Discussion also touches on AI’s potential—while it may automate some tasks or reduce team size, it likely won’t eliminate the need for skilled human teams aligned to business goals.

Finally, Manuel stresses the importance of culture and human factors—restructuring teams requires managing change and encouraging collaboration. He also suggests exploring complementary frameworks such as Wardley Mapping and Domain-Driven Design, as well as practices like Dynamic Reteaming, to help organizations thrive in continuously evolving environments.