Team Topologies Communication: English Collocations
Team Topologies has introduced a specific vocabulary for discussing how engineering organisations structure their teams and interactions. From establishing platform teams to reducing cognitive load and defining interaction modes, this exercise practises the collocations engineering leaders use in organisational design discussions.
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The organisation decided to ___ a platform team to reduce cognitive load on stream-aligned teams.
Establish a platform team is the formal collocation in Team Topologies language — teams are 'established' as a structural decision with clear mandate and boundaries. 'Create' and 'form' are also natural; 'build' implies assembling from scratch over time. 'Establish' carries formal organisational intent.
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The engineering director wants to ___ cognitive load across all delivery teams before the reorg.
Reduce cognitive load is the canonical Team Topologies collocation — the framework explicitly uses 'reduce' as the goal of team structure design. 'Minimise' is also used in the book; 'lower' and 'decrease' are less idiomatic in the Team Topologies context.
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The enabling team will ___ the stream-aligned teams in adopting the new observability platform.
Support the stream-aligned teams is the precise Team Topologies collocation — enabling teams 'support' other teams by providing expertise and removing blockers. 'Guide' implies direction-setting; 'help' and 'assist' are informal. The Team Topologies book specifically uses 'support' for enabling team interactions.
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Leadership agreed to ___ interaction modes between all teams as part of the quarterly topology review.
Define interaction modes is the exact Team Topologies collocation — the framework defines three interaction modes (collaboration, X-as-a-service, facilitating) and teams 'define' which mode applies. 'Establish' is also correct; 'set' and 'clarify' are less precise in this framework's vocabulary.
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The CTO wants to ___ the team boundaries to better align with business domains.
Redraw team boundaries is the natural collocation in organisational design discussions — boundaries are visually 'drawn' in team topology diagrams, and changing them means 'redrawing'. 'Redesign' applies to the whole structure; 'rethink' is more informal; 'restructure' is broader and less precise.