Team Topologies, 2nd Edition: Real-World Lessons from the Global Business  Community

Today marks an exciting milestone in organizational design: the release of Team Topologies, 2nd Edition by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. Since the original publication transformed how organizations think about team structure and value delivery, we’ve witnessed an incredible global movement of teams applying these patterns in ways that continue to surprise and inspire.

What’s New in the Second Edition

This isn’t just a reprint—it’s an evolution. The second edition builds on the solid foundation of the original with three major additions that reflect years of real-world application and learning:

A Fresh Perspective from the Authors

Skelton and Pais’s new foreword captures how Team Topologies thinking has matured and spread across industries they never initially imagined. They share insights from unexpected applications and discuss how the patterns have evolved in practice.

Global Case Studies from Every Industry

The heart of this edition is an entirely new appendix packed with case studies from organizations around the world. These aren’t theoretical examples—these are real teams, real challenges, and real results that showcase the remarkable breadth of Team Topologies applications:

• EBSCO Information Services transformed from component-based teams drowning in dependencies to value stream-aligned teams, achieving a 26% decrease in feature cycle time, 52% reduction in blockers, and $9.1 million in savings with 62% ROI.
• GovTech Singapore pioneered “forward deployed teams” as enabling teams, using an “inside-out” approach to validate approaches internally before scaling across Singapore’s entire public sector digital transformation.
• ING Netherlands evolved its agile transformation with Team Topologies, moving from output-focused delivery to outcome-driven product thinking while establishing enabling teams at multiple organizational levels.
• KFC UK&I restructured from channel-based teams (mobile, web, kiosk) to value stream teams (Acquisition & Retention, Basket & Checkout, Payment & Fulfillment), resulting in 15x app sales growth and 33% reduction in cycle time.
• Creditas used cognitive load assessments to guide their transformation, moving from a single overloaded Payments team to autonomous stream-aligned teams supported by targeted enabling teams and a platform team.
• Yassir scaled from 50 to 400 engineers while implementing their “SAUCE” principles (Small, Audience focused, Cross-functional, Enabled), achieving 140% increase in deployment frequency and 230% increase in employee satisfaction.
• And many more, including Capra Consulting’s revolutionary “leadership-as-a-service” model, Telenet’s organization-wide business agility transformation, Trade Me’s thinnest viable platform approach, and Adidas’s platform engineering journey from outsourcing to internal excellence.

Authors’ Reflections on the Journey

The new afterword reflects on what Skelton and Pais have learned from the global community of practice that has emerged. They discuss the patterns they didn’t anticipate, the challenges that proved more complex than expected, and where they see Team Topologies heading next—including applications to AI-augmented organizations and government-as-a-platform approaches.

Why This Matters Now More Than Ever

Organizations running digital services have only become more complex since 2019. Remote and hybrid work, AI integration, platform engineering, and the relentless pace of digital transformation have made effective team design even more critical. Organizations can’t afford to leave team structure to chance—it’s too fundamental to everything else they’re trying to achieve.

What’s remarkable about these case studies is seeing how the four fundamental team topologies—stream-aligned teams, enabling teams, complicated-subsystem teams, and platform teams—continue to provide clarity in this complexity. The patterns work because they’re based on cognitive science and systems thinking, not fleeting technology trends.

The case studies reveal how cognitive load has become a design principle, with organizations like Creditas using cognitive load assessments to drive meaningful change, and Trade Me focusing its thinnest viable platform specifically on reducing developer cognitive load. We’re seeing Team Topologies expand far beyond software into research and development for pharmaceutical companies, case management in global law firms, HR and people management, and even hospital emergency care.

The Global Community Effect

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this journey has been watching a global community of practitioners emerge. From Team Topologies community forums to conference talks in dozens of countries, from enterprise transformations to startup implementations—the principles have proven remarkably adaptable while remaining fundamentally sound.

The case studies demonstrate this diversity: Capra Consulting dissolved their traditional management team to create a network-centric organization using “leadership-as-a-service,” while Telenet applied Team Topologies thinking to their entire organization—not just software development—creating customer tribes, platform tribes, and enterprise tribes that drove true business agility.

What’s striking is how organizations are using Team Topologies for whole-organization transformation, moving beyond traditional “target operating models” to something more adaptable and continuously changing. The authors note they’re even seeing private equity groups and venture studios apply Team Topologies patterns across entire portfolios of companies, with some companies acting as platforms, others as enabling groups, and others as stream-aligned groups.

What’s Next?

Team Topologies, 2nd Edition isn’t the end of the conversation—it’s fuel for the next phase. As readers explore the new case studies, they’ll likely discover patterns that resonate with their own challenges and opportunities they hadn’t considered.

The principles remain timeless: optimize for fast flow, respect cognitive load limits, design for team interaction modes, and evolve your topology as your organization grows. But the applications continue to expand and surprise. Skelton and Pais discuss applications to AI-augmented organizations, with clear domain boundaries and constrained operating contexts helping establish trust in AI agent fleets. They’re watching governments adopt “government as a platform” approaches, as showcased in the GovTech Singapore case study.

The future isn’t just about technology—it’s about designing organizations where humans are empowered by technology rather than replaced by it. As the authors conclude, the most successful organizations will be those that recognize technology should serve human potential, not constrain it.

Get Your Copy Today

Whether you’re revisiting Team Topologies or discovering it for the first time, this second edition offers both foundational principles and cutting-edge insights from practitioners worldwide. The future of modern organizations isn’t just about technology—it’s about designing teams for humans to do their best work.

Team Topologies, 2nd Edition, is available now wherever books are sold.

Ready to transform your team structure? Join thousands of organizations worldwide that have discovered that the secret to fast flow isn’t just better tools—it’s better team design.

- About The Authors

Leah Brown

Managing Editor at IT Revolution working on publishing books and guidance papers for the modern business leader. I also oversee the production of the IT Revolution blog, combining the best of responsible, human-centered content with the assistance of AI tools.

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