Open Tech Calendar

TFoW team bring you - Team Topologies 6th May with Manuel Pais

Forget Monoliths vs Microservices, Focus on Team Cognitive Load

Topics​: orgdesign, team topologies, teams, microservices, monoliths, cognition, cognitive load, team dynamics.

The debate on monoliths vs microservices as architectural patterns for modern software systems usually focuses on technological aspects, missing crucial details around organizational strategy and team dynamics.
Should we start with a monolith and extract microservices or start with microservices? How many microservices is the right number? These kinds of questions indicate a confusion that is made worse by the perceived need to adopt lots of new technology in order to make microservices work.

The false dichotomy between monoliths and microservices helps no-one. Instead, switched-on organizations start with the team cognitive load required to build and run a part of the software system. If a team is not able to fully understand the details of a service or subsystem, there is little chance of the team being able to own and support it.

The resulting team-sized services are by definition suitable in size and complexity for a single team to own, develop, and run. No longer do we care how many lines of code there are in a single service or whether it is a “monolith”: what we care about is that a team can own and run the software effectively.
Using team cognitive load as the guiding principle - assessed by the team via measures such as supportability, deployability, testability, operability, prioritization difficulties and domain complexity - organizations can optimize for sustainable ownership and evolution of software systems.

This talk draws on research and case studies from the book ​Team Topologies​ by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais (IT Revolution Press, 2019) together with first-hand consulting experience from the authors with organizations around the world.

Bio
Manuel Pais​ is an organizational IT consultant and trainer, focused on team interactions, delivery practices and accelerating flow. Manuel is co-author of the book “​Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow​“. He helps organizations rethink their approach to software delivery, operations, and support via strategic assessments, practical workshops, and coaching. See ​manuelpais.net​ for more information.