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
   

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2. COMMON FRUSTRATIONS
   2
   

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3. “Organizations which design systems … are
   constrained to produce designs which are copies of
   the communication structures of these organizations”
   — Melvin Conway, 1968
   3
   

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4. Conway’s Law
   4
   

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5. 5
   Hi. I’m Conway!
   

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6. LET’S IMAGINE THIS SCENARIO
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   • Distributed UK and Brazil teams
   • UK team are clients
   • Brazil team are contractors
   • Need to build a big service
   

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8. WHAT IS PLANNED
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   Big Service
   

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9. 9
   This isn’t going to
   end well…
   

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10. LET’S BUILD THIS
    10
    Brazil Team UK Team
    

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11. LET’S BUILD THIS
    11
    Brazil Team UK Team
    

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12. LET’S BUILD THIS
    12
    Brazil Team UK Team
    

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13. COMMUNICATION ISSUES
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    • UK makes decisions
    • Brazil is not invited to all meetings
    • E-mail communications
    • Separate time zones
    

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14. INFRASTRUCTURE DOES NOT HELP
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    • Phone conferencing sucks
    • No video
    • Chat apps blocked by firewall
    

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15. AS TIME GOES BY
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    Brazil Team UK Team
    

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16. AS TIME GOES BY
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    Brazil Team UK Team
    

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17. AS TIME GOES BY
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    Brazil Team UK Team
    

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18. DISTRIBUTED MONOLITH
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    A B
    Tight Coupling
    

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19. TWO SILOS
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    Brazil Team UK Team
    

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20. FRUSTRATIONS
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    • Siloed knowledge
    • Poor productivity
    • Code quality is sacrificed
    • Over-engineered distributed monolith
    

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21. 21
    I WARNED YOU!
    MUAHAHAHA!!!
    

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22. Can we avoid this?
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23. 23
    Yes you can!
    Shut up!
    

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24. Communication is the key!
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25. MEET THE TEAM
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26. Sometimes, you just gotta be there
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28. DROP BY FOR A VISIT
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    • Meet everyone face to face
    • You won’t be just an avatar anymore
    • Understand the organization culture
    

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29. MAKE FRIENDS
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    • Don’t be shy
    • Have lunch together
    • Make a team outing
    • Be nice!
    

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30. BRING FOOD
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31. BLEND IN
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32. START INFLUENCING
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    • Identify key persons
    • Who makes decisions?
    • Understand how they work
    

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33. MAKE A TRAVEL SCHEDULE
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    • Rotate travel among the team
    • Have someone from your team onsite
    • Bring the client to visit your office!
    

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34. INFRASTRUCTURE SETUP
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35. You don’t realize how much you need the
    Internet until it stops working
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36. CONFERENCING
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    • Internet bandwidth is critical
    • Turn the video on
    • Good audio equipment
    • Phone line can have degraded audio
    

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37. CONFERENCING
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38. INTERNATIONAL CALLS SUCK
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39. USE GOOD AUDIO EQUIPMENT
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40. DEDICATED AUDIO VIDEO LINK
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41. EVEN AN OLD LAPTOP WILL DO
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42. TEAM CHAT
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    • Slack
    • FlowDock
    • HipChat
    • Campfire
    • Good’n old IRC
    

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43. SCREEN SHARING TOOLS
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    • Screenhero
    • vim + tmux
    • VNC
    

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44. COMMUNICATE
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45. Rule #1: don’t be shy!
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46. CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE
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    • 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
    

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47. I’M TALKING ABOUT THIS!
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48. …AND THIS!
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49. Got a problem? Say it!
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50. MEETINGS
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    • If you didn't understand, ask
    • If audio quality is bad, let them know
    • Stay focused
    

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51. CORE HOURS
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    • 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!
    

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52. Answer fast, be responsive
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53. DEALING WITH TIME ZONES
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    • Intersection core-hours
    • A decision log may be helpful
    

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54. AVOID FUNCTIONAL SILOS
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55. Gotta constantly fight Conway’s Law
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56. 56
    I’m your worst
    enemy!
    

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57. CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAMS
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    • Vertical stories
    • Understand the whole stack
    • Work on all modules
    • Share knowledge
    

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59. REMOTE PAIR PROGRAMMING
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    • Don’t neglect it
    • No more than a few hours per day
    • As needed
    

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60. CONSULTING ADVICE
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    • Have someone onsite as a contact point
    • Ask for help
    • Don’t let the client forget to invite you
    to meetings
    

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61. 61
    Follow these
    tips and you
    shall succeed!
    Grrrrrrrr…
    

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62. Felipe Dornelas
    fdornelas@thoughtworks.com
    THANK YOU
    

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