Enabling teams for happier and more productive engineers by Tim Van Roeyen

Team Topologies and enabling teams help reduce cognitive load on development teams by providing dedicated support and coaching

Enabling teams should be hands-off - they guide and train but don’t do the work for other teams

Key traits for enabling team members:

• Strong technical skills
• Good communication/people skills
• Ability to train others
• Willingness to continuously learn

ING Belgium’s enabling team achieved significant results with just 3% of engineering capacity:

• 30% more deployments
• 33% better deployment quality
• Improved team maturity levels
• Broke down silos between teams

Best practices for establishing enabling teams:

• Start small and build trust
• Define clear scope and focus areas
• Find the right engineers for the role
• Enable teams to self-manage
• Continuously improve and stay flexible

Regular “open door” sessions help facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration between teams

Platform engineering can help reduce cognitive load but shouldn’t create new silos

Documentation and training materials should be maintained to help scale knowledge

Focus on structural improvements rather than just quick wins

Important to maintain balance between enabling work and business value delivery