A bottleneck is a constraint that limits the flow or efficiency of work. In organizations, it can arise when a shared platform cannot meet consumers’ needs, a process takes too long, or a team’s coordination demands exceed its capacity. section 6.1.4 section 7.3.1 section 11.2.3
Look for bottlenecks in:
- Shared capabilities that are difficult to consume or cannot keep pace with the teams depending on them. section 6.1.4
- Processes with long or highly variable durations; make the time between events explicit. section 7.3.1
- Team dependencies that require sustained coordination or leave one team maintaining work for others. section 11.2.3
- Internal tools that add friction, slow case processing, or make operations hard to scale. section 3.1.6
Integration platform team
A platform team built and maintained custom endpoints for several teams. The resulting coordination exceeded its capacity, so others experienced it as a bottleneck. Mapping team interactions helped clarify which responsibilities belonged elsewhere. section 11.2.3
The team topology diagram illustrates how extensive collaboration overloaded the integration platform team. section 11.2.3
