Efficient Remote Work

Some important advice for distributed teams. With enough discipline and good infrastructure any remote team can succeed. It will also introduce you to the famous Conway's Law. Presented at ThoughtWorks.

Transcript

1. E F F I C I E N T REMOTE WORK Felipe Dornelas
2. COMMON FRUSTRATIONS 2
3. “Organizations which design systems … are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations” — Melvin Conway, 1968 3
4. Conway’s Law 4
5. 5 Hi. I’m Conway!
6. LET’S IMAGINE THIS SCENARIO 6 • Distributed UK and Brazil teams • UK team are clients • Brazil team are contractors • Need to build a big service
7. 7
8. WHAT IS PLANNED 8 Big Service
9. 9 This isn’t going to end well…
10. LET’S BUILD THIS 10 Brazil Team UK Team
11. LET’S BUILD THIS 11 Brazil Team UK Team
12. LET’S BUILD THIS 12 Brazil Team UK Team
13. COMMUNICATION ISSUES 13 • UK makes decisions • Brazil is not invited to all meetings • E-mail communications • Separate time zones
14. INFRASTRUCTURE DOES NOT HELP 14 • Phone conferencing sucks • No video • Chat apps blocked by firewall
15. AS TIME GOES BY 15 Brazil Team UK Team
16. AS TIME GOES BY 16 Brazil Team UK Team
17. AS TIME GOES BY 17 Brazil Team UK Team
18. DISTRIBUTED MONOLITH 18 A B Tight Coupling
19. TWO SILOS 19 Brazil Team UK Team
20. FRUSTRATIONS 20 • Siloed knowledge • Poor productivity • Code quality is sacrificed • Over-engineered distributed monolith
21. 21 I WARNED YOU! MUAHAHAHA!!!
22. Can we avoid this? 22
23. 23 Yes you can! Shut up!
24. Communication is the key! 24
25. MEET THE TEAM 25
26. Sometimes, you just gotta be there 26
27. 27
28. DROP BY FOR A VISIT 28 • Meet everyone face to face • You won’t be just an avatar anymore • Understand the organization culture
29. MAKE FRIENDS 29 • Don’t be shy • Have lunch together • Make a team outing • Be nice!
30. BRING FOOD 30
31. BLEND IN 31
32. START INFLUENCING 32 • Identify key persons • Who makes decisions? • Understand how they work
33. MAKE A TRAVEL SCHEDULE 33 • Rotate travel among the team • Have someone from your team onsite • Bring the client to visit your office!
34. INFRASTRUCTURE SETUP 34
35. You don’t realize how much you need the Internet until it stops working 35
36. CONFERENCING 36 • Internet bandwidth is critical • Turn the video on • Good audio equipment • Phone line can have degraded audio
37. CONFERENCING 37
38. INTERNATIONAL CALLS SUCK 38
39. USE GOOD AUDIO EQUIPMENT 39
40. DEDICATED AUDIO VIDEO LINK 40
41. EVEN AN OLD LAPTOP WILL DO 41
42. TEAM CHAT 42 • Slack • FlowDock • HipChat • Campfire • Good’n old IRC
43. SCREEN SHARING TOOLS 43 • Screenhero • vim + tmux • VNC
44. COMMUNICATE 44
45. Rule #1: don’t be shy! 45
46. CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE 46 • Use the audio video link as much as possible • Participate in the team chat • One or two quick daily stand-ups • E-mail as a last resource
47. I’M TALKING ABOUT THIS! 47
48. …AND THIS! 48
49. Got a problem? Say it! 49
50. MEETINGS 50 • If you didn't understand, ask • If audio quality is bad, let them know • Stay focused
51. CORE HOURS 51 • Agree upon core hours • Let the team know when: • You are going to be late • You will leave your desk for too long • It’s all about perception!
52. Answer fast, be responsive 52
53. DEALING WITH TIME ZONES 53 • Intersection core-hours • A decision log may be helpful
54. AVOID FUNCTIONAL SILOS 54
55. Gotta constantly fight Conway’s Law 55
56. 56 I’m your worst enemy!
57. CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAMS 57 • Vertical stories • Understand the whole stack • Work on all modules • Share knowledge
58. 58
59. REMOTE PAIR PROGRAMMING 59 • Don’t neglect it • No more than a few hours per day • As needed
60. CONSULTING ADVICE 60 • Have someone onsite as a contact point • Ask for help • Don’t let the client forget to invite you to meetings
61. 61 Follow these tips and you shall succeed! Grrrrrrrr…
62. Felipe Dornelas fdornelas@thoughtworks.com THANK YOU