DDD Europe 2025 - Team topologies and the microservice architecture: a synergistic relationship

team topologies   pattern language   microservices platforms   architecting  

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I recently gave a talk at the excellent DDD Europe 2025 conference in Antwerp, where I discussed the synergistic relationship between team topologies and the microservice architecture.

You can find the abstract, and slides below.

There are two key ideas that I want to highlight from the talk:

• Microservice architecture supports team topologies at scale
• Service teams need platforms

Key idea: the microservice architecture supports team topologies at scale

The monolithic architectural style works well for applications developed by a small number of stream-aligned teams. But as the number of teams grows, the monolith can become a obstacle to fast flow. The shared code base, single technology stack and single deployment pipeline forces teams to collaborate more frequently.

When the organization outgrows the monolithic architecture, adopting the microservice architecture can improve productivity. Because services in a microservice architecture are loosely design-time coupled and independently deployable, the stream-aligned teams that own them can work independently.

Key idea: service teams need platforms

Teams that develop services must apply numerous patterns from the microservice architecture pattern language. However, many of those patterns consist plumbing code, which handles cross-cutting concerns, and infrastructure services. Implementing these patterns can be a burden that distracts teams from delivering business value. In order to be able to focus on the domain logic, teams need platforms that provide these capabilities.

To learn more about these platforms, see this series of articles.

Abstract

In order to thrive in today’s volatile and uncertain world, organizations need to master fast flow: the continuous delivery of a stream of small changes to customers and continuous feedback to development. Two essential enablers of fast flow at scale are Team Topologies - which structures an organization for fast flow - and the microservice architecture, which is an architectural style that enables large scale, fast flow development. But beyond both enabling fast flow, what exactly is the relationship between Team Topologies and the microservice architecture?

In this presentation, I describe the synergistic relationship between Team Topologies and the microservice architecture and how they enable fast flow. You will learn how the microservice architecture supports Team Topologies by enabling teams to work more effectively. I discuss also how to apply Team Topologies patterns in a way that enables the successful adoption of the microservice architecture. You will learn about the platforms that the microservice architecture needs.

Slides