The Sociotechnical Organisation Design Playbook
summary
Argues that concrete sociotechnical patterns (dog food, octopus, slice-and-scale, slice-and-scatter, slice-and-merge) let you choose team and service boundaries to speed evolution rather than vague org advice, and tests those patterns with real examples: a UK government payments service stuck for weeks with five project managers to add address lines, a rushed purchase of a generic rules engine, and a GDPR “octopus” fan‑out. Recommends modeling with event storming, measuring coupling with forensic analysis of version control, and using promise theory to aim for autonomous teams.
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chapters (20)
- 0:00Why modularity matters
- 2:08Real-world modularity failure
- 4:38Management’s surprising response
- 6:26Socio-technical architecture explained
- 8:11From tech to socio-technical thinking
- 9:40Exploring architectural styles
- 11:52Trade-offs in architecture choices
- 15:20Architecture and organizational flow
- 16:25Why patterns matter
- 17:29Dog food context pattern
- 20:21Octopus context pattern
- 24:58Lifecycle stage patterns
- 26:23Slice and scale pattern
- 29:32Slice and scatter pattern
- 31:16Slice and merge pattern
- 32:21Design principles and practices
- 35:11Event storming explained
- 39:08Forensic analysis insight
- 39:49Evolving socio-technical systems
- 40:52Call to action and closing
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