Cognitive Load vs Domains ๐๐ฝ
Teams designed to be self-sufficient often can take on too many responsibilities, leading to a high ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ด๐ป๐ถ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐น๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฑ. Cognitive load is directly influenced by the number of ๐ฑ๐ผ๐บ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐ a team is responsible for.
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Cognitive Load vs Domains ๐๐ฝ
Teams designed to be self-sufficient often can take on too many responsibilities, leading to a high ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ด๐ป๐ถ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐น๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฑ.
Cognitive load is directly influenced by the number of ๐ฑ๐ผ๐บ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐ a team is responsible for.
Domains are core areas of knowledge and expertise, such as:
โถ๏ธ Business: Sales, customer service, marketing.
โถ๏ธ Technical: Cloud infrastructure, AI, cybersecurity.
โถ๏ธ Software: Codebases, subsystems, components, platforms.
โถ๏ธ Process: Research, governance, ways of working.
Domains can be ๐ฆ๐ถ๐บ๐ฝ๐น๐ฒ, ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐น๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ, ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐น๐ฒ๐ :
โถ๏ธ Simple: Clear solutions. The correct path forward is known and can be universally agreed upon. Best Practices apply.
โถ๏ธ Complicated: Needs analysis and iterations. Expert knowledge and experience play a critical role.
โถ๏ธ Complex: Emergent, unpredictableโrequires adaptive strategies, probing, experimentation, and iterative learning.
The work of Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais (Team Topologies) ๐บ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ Pais in Team Topologies has been crucial to mainstreaming this discussion.
In the book, they share a few ๐ต๐ฒ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐ as a design starting point:
โถ๏ธ Assign each domain to a single team.
โถ๏ธ Teams can handle 2-3 simple domains but should avoid managing multiple complicated or complex domains.
๐ฌ How many domains is your team responsible for today? Are they simple, complicated, or complex? ๐๐ฝ