Four Team Types for Modern Software Development

I enjoy the insights learned within enabling constraints. Team Topologies seems to capture a powerful one with its four fundamental team types:

• Stream-aligned teams deliver continuous value flow for a specific business domain. These are the core teams that everything else supports.

• Platforms Groups provide self-service capabilities that reduce cognitive load for stream-aligned teams. Think of them as internal products with their own users.

• Complicated-subsystem teams handle technically complex areas that require specialized expertise—mathematical algorithms, security protocols, or performance-critical systems.

• Enabling teams help other teams acquire missing capabilities through research, coaching, and knowledge transfer. They’re temporary by design.

What interests me most is the explicit focus on supporting stream-aligned teams. Rather than organizing around technical silos, this model organizes around value delivery while providing the necessary specialized support.

Most organizations get this backwards—they organize around technical capabilities and wonder why business value moves so slowly. Team Topologies flips the default: organize around value streams and provide the technical capabilities as a service.

The constraint is powerful: most teams should be stream-aligned. Everything else is supporting infrastructure.