The Art of the Pull Request

Take a moment to ask yourself, "what are Pull Requests for?"

Typically PRs are used as a means to communicate that some body of work has been done and is ready to be merged. But is this an optimal use of PRs? If we submit a PR after the work has been completed, have we missed a golden opportunity to collaborate?

PRs should be treated like the basic unit of collaboration within GitHub-based projects. By using PRs as communication medium and not simply as a review mechanism, we can create opportunities to communicate better within our projects, enhance the on-boarding of new contributors and help catch potential problems early.

In this short talk, I show off the good, the bad and the ugly of PRs and provide a template for best practice which encourages communication and collaboration within your community.

Transcript

1. THE ART OF THE
   PULL REQUEST
   ACHIEVING ASYNCHRONOUS
   COLLABORATION SUCCESS
   PAUL ADAMS
   23-04-2018
   

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2. 2
   Is Your Team A Community?
   What Is A PR, Really?
   The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
   Solid PR Templating
   THE ART OF THE PULL
   REQUEST
   “Tug of War” by toffehoff (https://flic.kr/p/nD2nk)
   No Time Like The Present!
   

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3. IS YOUR TEAM A COMMUNITY?
   

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4. 4
   ZALANDO AT A GLANCE
   as at March 2018
   ~ 4.5
   billion EUR
   revenue 2017
   > 200
   million
   visits
   per
   month
   > 15,000
   employees in
   Europe
   > 70%
   of visits via
   mobile devices
   > 23
   million
   active customers
   > 300,000
   product choices
   ~ 2,000
   brands
   15
   countries
   

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5. 5
   WE ARE CONSTANTLY INNOVATING TECHNOLOGY
   HOME-BREWED,
   CUTTING-EDGE
   & SCALABLE
   technology solutions
   ~ 2,000
   employees from
   tech locations
   (HQs in Berlin)
   7
   77
   nations
   help our brand to
   WIN ONLINE
   

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6. 6
   THE PILLARS OF RADICAL AGILITY
   

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7. WHAT IS A PR, REALLY?
   

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8. 8
   LOOK WHAT I DID!
   In GitHub’s own words: “Pull requests let you tell
   others about changes you've pushed to a GitHub
   repository.”
   - After the fact
   - “Let” is weak
   - “others”?
   “Acupuncture” by Petras Gagllas (https://flic.kr/p/iJoBE8)
   

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9. 9
   HOW ABOUT THIS DESCRIPTION?
   “AN ASYNCHRONOUS FORM OF COMMUNICATION DESIGNED TO COLLECT ALL
   INFORMATION RELATED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SPECIFIC FEATURE”
   

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10. THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY
    

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11. 11
    THE “ERR… I GUESS I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED HERE” PR
    

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12. 12
    THE “NOT TOO BAD AT ALL” PR
    

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14. SOLID PR TEMPLATING
    

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15. 15
    OK, SO WHAT COULD A PR LOOK LIKE?
    • Related Issue
    • Motivation
    • Description
    • Type Of Change
    • Sanitary Considerations
    “Fabric Design” by yaskil (https://flic.kr/p/cib95w)
    

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16. NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT!
    

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17. 17
    A SCRUM-BASED EXAMPLE
    “Scrum” by Charlie (https://flic.kr/p/gB9tsA)
    

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18. 18
    PRs IN SCRUM CEREMONIES
    “postits” by Peer 2 Peer University (https://flic.kr/p/bt51RX)
    Ceremony Description
    Daily Scrum Probably no role here.
    Planning 1 Open PR.
    Planning 2 Complete the PR template.
    Review Merge the PR.
    Retro Perhaps process/template review.
    Backlog
    Refinement
    Probably no role here.
    

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19. ICYMI
    

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20. 20
    • Mastery, Purpose and Autonomy Need Alignment to Succeed
    • Conway’s Law dictates asynchronous
    • Documentation, folks!
    • Document the feature in PRs
    • For now
    • Forever
    THIS IS THE END
    

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21. PAUL ADAMS
    paul.adams@zalando.de
    @therealpadams
    baggerspion.net
    23-04-2018
    OPEN SOURCE LEAD
    

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