Implementing Data Mesh

Chapter 14. Establishing Data Mesh Teams

Just like a natural ecosystem, Data Mesh consists of interconnected components that work together to create a thriving environment for data-driven value creation. But Data Mesh is a sociotechnical capability, which means that it has technology elements as well as social elements—or more specifically, organizational and cultural considerations.

Today, many enterprises focus mostly on the technical aspects at the expense of understanding the social aspects. In fact, many practitioners would tell you that technology is a relatively small part of a successful Data Mesh implementation. In our experience, the 80/20 rule applies: 80% of the effort, time, and cost in a Data Mesh implementation (and data product implementation) is spent trying to win over and influence people to adopt a new approach to organizational and cultural issues—one that emphasizes decentralization, local autonomy, new roles, and new governance techniques.

So these “organizational and cultural issues” are a big topic, which we address in this and the next chapter. In this chapter, we focus on the teams that are involved in Data Mesh: the data product team as well as the teams they interact with. The next chapter looks at the broader operating model: how teams interact, how they are governed, and how they are incentivized.

Team Topologies in Data Mesh

To describe the teams in the Data Mesh ecosystem, we leverage the concept of team topologies, adapted from Matthew Skelton ...