Teams

PRISM supports team topology modeling based on the Team Topologies framework. This enables clear ownership of metrics, services, and standards across the organization.

Team Types

Type	Constant	Description
Stream-Aligned	stream_aligned	Teams that build and run services end-to-end
Platform	platform	Teams that provide infrastructure as a product
Enabling	enabling	Teams that help other teams adopt practices
Overlay	overlay	Teams that define standards across the organization

Stream-Aligned Teams

Stream-aligned teams are responsible for a flow of work aligned to a single, valuable stream of work.

• Own specific services end-to-end
• Responsible for metrics in their services
• Primary implementers of standards

{
  "id": "payments-team",
  "name": "Payments Team",
  "type": "stream_aligned",
  "serviceIds": ["payments-api", "payments-worker"],
  "layerAccountability": ["code", "runtime"]
}

Platform Teams

Platform teams provide internal services and tooling that accelerate delivery.

• Own infrastructure layer metrics
• Provide self-service capabilities
• Enable stream-aligned teams

{
  "id": "platform-team",
  "name": "Platform Engineering",
  "type": "platform",
  "layerAccountability": ["infra"],
  "serviceIds": ["kubernetes-platform", "observability-stack"]
}

Enabling Teams

Enabling teams help other teams adopt new practices and technologies.

• Focus on capability building
• Work across teams temporarily
• Help improve practices organization-wide

{
  "id": "devex-team",
  "name": "Developer Experience",
  "type": "enabling",
  "domain": "operations"
}

Overlay Teams

Overlay teams define and maintain standards across the organization. Common examples:

• Security team (AppSec, CloudSec)
• Quality Engineering team
• SRE/Reliability team
• Accessibility team

{
  "id": "security-team",
  "name": "Security Team",
  "type": "overlay",
  "domain": "security"
}

Domain Accountability

Overlay teams typically own a domain and define standards that other teams implement:

Team	Domain	Role
Security Team	security	Define security standards, review compliance
QE Team	quality	Define quality standards, testing practices
SRE Team	operations	Define reliability standards, SLOs

RACI Simplification

PRISM keeps ownership simple by using the Team Topologies model instead of complex RACI matrices:

Role	Team Type
Accountable (Standards)	Overlay/Enabling
Responsible (Implementation)	Stream-Aligned/Platform

Example: Full Team Structure

{
  "teams": [
    {
      "id": "security-team",
      "name": "Security Team",
      "type": "overlay",
      "domain": "security",
      "owner": "Jane Smith",
      "slack": "#security"
    },
    {
      "id": "platform-team",
      "name": "Platform Engineering",
      "type": "platform",
      "layerAccountability": ["infra"],
      "owner": "Bob Johnson",
      "slack": "#platform"
    },
    {
      "id": "payments-team",
      "name": "Payments Team",
      "type": "stream_aligned",
      "serviceIds": ["payments-api"],
      "layerAccountability": ["code", "runtime"],
      "owner": "Alice Chen"
    }
  ]
}

CLI Commands

List teams in a document:

prism team list prism.json

Show team details with services:

prism team show prism.json security-team

Best Practices

1. Use standard team types - Align with Team Topologies patterns
2. Assign domain to overlay teams - Clarifies standards ownership
3. Link stream-aligned teams to services - Establishes service ownership
4. Define layer accountability - Specifies which layers the team owns
5. Keep ownership simple - Avoid complex RACI, use team types instead