The teams cognitive load heuristic evaluates whether a team’s full set of responsibilities is bounded, focused, and realistically manageable—not just whether one value stream appears reasonable. section 11.3.1
Use these questions to surface overload:
- Would the team’s breadth of topics and context switching remain bounded enough to support focus and success? section 11.3.1
- Does the team have a defined, realistically manageable responsibility set? section 11.3.1
- Would infrastructure, platform abstractions, or extraneous work consume substantial capacity? section 11.3.1
When concerns emerge, adjust domain boundaries, reduce roadmap expectations, or move complexity into platforms so the team can focus on its core mission. section 11.3.1
A support-team check
A supporting subdomain team should understand why work matters and participate in discovery and design, rather than absorb externally imposed work without decision authority. section 11.3.1
Use the figure as a visual prompt for asking whether one horizontal support team can realistically serve three diverse verticals. section 11.3.1
