Building a Bottom‑Up Cross‑Team Architecture in a Large Commercial Bank

01

Bottom‑up attempt to shape a horizontal organization

In a commercial bank’s corporate‑business domain, dozens of functional teams (marketing, product, risk, etc.) manage nearly a hundred modules with hundreds of developers. The functional division creates clear boundaries, but each team focuses only on its own responsibilities, making end‑to‑end customer services impossible without cross‑team collaboration.

Because a top‑down matrix re‑organization was not feasible, the architect used personal influence to create a virtual, bottom‑up horizontal organization. A dedicated owner is assigned in each grassroots unit, forming a consensus‑driven “horizontal matter” team that operates across functional silos.

The mechanism mirrors the principle “the Party branch on the front line”: architectural planning and standards are embedded at the most granular module level, linking business strategy with technical evolution.

02

Three‑step implementation

After defining a horizontal team for each smallest unit, the execution methodology follows three steps.

统筹，既要统又要筹

Step 1 – Unified planning with concrete execution (统而不筹). “统” means a unified view across dimensions; “筹” means devising actionable methods, monitoring, and tracking. The mechanism must balance daily delivery rhythms so work proceeds smoothly without colliding with project timelines, and avoid becoming a mere “router” or “foreman” that only passes tasks.

Provide detailed rollout plans to reduce execution, feedback, and reporting burdens on grassroots teams. Apply a customer‑centric mindset to improve experience, efficiency, and outcomes.

打造样板，试点先行，分批推进

Step 2 – Pilot and scale. Create a “model room” as a benchmark (similar to a reform‑open‑pilot zone). Other teams can follow the exemplar, lowering psychological resistance. Example: promote automated testing across the domain. Instead of measuring raw test‑case coverage, focus on scenario‑based end‑to‑end interface chains; coverage becomes a side effect of achieving functional goals.

任务全生命周期数字化管理

Step 3 – Digital lifecycle management. Establish a “task baseline template” that standardizes task creation, assignment, execution, monitoring, acceptance, evaluation, and statistics. The template should be online so every task inherits the baseline and can be customized as needed, dramatically improving efficiency and freeing architects to focus on higher‑value work.

Typical template fields include module name, owner name, and owner contact. By managing tasks end‑to‑end in a digital system, the organization reduces manual overhead and ensures consistent governance.