They tried to make me do a reorg, but I said no, no, no

Posted on by Matthew Skelton (@matthewskelton)

Inspired by a comment from Anders Bruvik, I asked ChatGPT 4o to write some song lyrics about the dreaded “re-org” and include some Team Topologies ideas:

Please write song lyrics that are similar to the lyrics of the song “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse but are instead focused on avoiding a “reorg”. Include some concepts from Team Topologies. The first line of the song should be “They tried to make me do a reorg, but I said no, no, no”

Here is the result – it’s not bad!

UPDATE: Stephen Kurzeja did a GenAI version of the song via Suno using the lyrics from ChatGPT 🤩 – https://suno.com/song/c4a1e33b-577d-49b1-a438-d3ed0d8d341c

Verse 1:

They tried to make me do a reorg, but I said no, no, no
I like my team just the way it is, can’t you see it’s a flow, flow, flow
I know the silos are hard, but trust the Stream-Aligned
We’ll deliver value fast, on time, on time

Chorus:

I don’t need no new boundaries, or Conway’s Law fix
With clear communication, our team really clicks
You say DevOps, I say fine, just give me a task to grow
But reorgs break our rhythm, and the answer is no, no, no

Verse 2:

They’re talking about Complicated Subsystems, and let’s dismantle the mess
But we need our Enabling Teams, to help and not to impress
Coordination’s key, with our Platform and Stream
Reorgs just shuffle pieces, and disrupt the dream

Chorus:

I don’t need no new boundaries, or Conway’s Law fix
With clear communication, our team really clicks
You say DevOps, I say fine, just give me a task to grow
But reorgs break our rhythm, and the answer is no, no, no

Bridge:

We got Team Topologies, and we know our roles
Collaborating fluidly, achieving all our goals
You think the org chart changes everything, but I say it’s a show
We got our ways of working, and that’s why the answer’s no

Chorus:

I don’t need no new boundaries, or Conway’s Law fix
With clear communication, our team really clicks
You say DevOps, I say fine, just give me a task to grow
But reorgs break our rhythm, and the answer is no, no, no

Outro:

Don’t need no reorg, don’t need no shake-up plan
With our team topology, we’re doing all we can
Alignment and flow, that’s how we like to go
Reorgs just bring chaos, so the answer is no, no, no

And for completeness, here is the original video of “Rehab” by the superb Amy Winehouse 💖

Expert consultation sessions now available online

Posted on by Matthew Skelton (@matthewskelton)

I am now available again for 1-hour online consultation sessions. Use ONLINE20 for a 20% discount.

We can shape a consulting session to explore any topic relevant to your organization’s current context and future goals. Typical topics include:

Consulting sessions are particularly beneficial when used as part of a larger learning program.

➡️ https://confluxhq.com/p662a

Slides from my talk at DevOpsCon Munich on How and why to design your teams for software

Posted on by Matthew Skelton (@matthewskelton)

I gave a talk at DevOpsCon Munich on How and why to design your teams for modern software systems – here are the slides:

In the talk, I covered various angles including:

  • Conway’s Law
  • Cognitive Load for teams
  • Team Topologies
  • Guidelines for team design

I will be giving a full-day workshop on Organisation Design for Modern Software Systems at Jax DevOps London 2017 (3-6 April) and DevOpsCon Berlin 2017 (June 12-15). Booking is open now for both events.

Slides from Team and Monoliths talk at Velocity Conf EU, Amsterdam, 7 Nov

Posted on by Matthew Skelton (@matthewskelton)

I gave a talk at Velocity Conference Europe 2016 called How to break apart a monolithic system safely without destroying your team based on work we have done at Skelton Thatcher Consulting over the past few years with various organisations.

Slides:

The slides are on Slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/SkeltonThatcher/teams-and-monoliths-matthew-skelton-velocity-eu-2016 and the video of the talk will be online soon.

The main take-aways from the talk are:

  • Recognise that by starting with the needs of the team, we can avoid cognitive overload, thereby making future development more sustainable
  • Understand the type of monolith you are dealing with (there are many kinds of monolith)
  • Consider using Code Forensics (see Your Code as a Crime Scene)
  • Find the natural ‘fracture planes’ in your code and work with these
  • Instrument the monolith before splitting it up
  • Understand data flows and fault responses
  • Split off one segment of code at a time, considering the cognitive load for the team

There is quite a bit more in the talk itself, including the effect of Conway’s Law, the benefits of monoliths, and real-world examples from client engagements.

teams-and-monoliths-summary

A big thanks from me to the organisers of VelocityConf for their hard work, to the audience in my talk for some excellent questions, and to the speaker selection panel for choosing my talk (!).