Do Repeat Yourself

How do you communicate with the rest of the team when you're engaged in a long-running technical project like a rewrite or migration? Communication can often become stale and irrelevant to everyone else. This talk will provide tactics for keeping your team in the loop.

Transcript

1. DO REPEAT YOURSELF CUKENFEST 2018 SABRINA LEANDRO @saleandro
2. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro EXAMPLES OF TECHNICAL PROJECTS ▸ Automation improvements, e.g. migrating to continuous deployment ▸ Upgrades of languages or frameworks, e.g. migrating an older Rails version to the newest ▸ Infrastructure changes, e.g. move to the cloud ▸ Decommissioning features or products ▸ Rewriting application to pay off tech debt

3. THIS IS NOT AN EXERCISE IN TECHNOLOGY
4. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro As a developer running a long-term technical project In order get my project prioritised and running I want to tie my project to business goals and opportunities
5. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro As a developer running a long-term technical project In order to make sure the project gets finished I want to communicate progress to the wider company
6. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro As a developer running a long-term technical project In order to keep my team happy and motivated I want to celebrate success as we progress
7. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro BEFORE YOU START, YOU NEED:
8. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro BEFORE YOU START, YOU NEED: ▸ Clear business goal
9. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro BEFORE YOU START, YOU NEED: ▸ Clear business goal ▸ Incremental steps
10. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro BEFORE YOU START, YOU NEED: ▸ Clear business goal ▸ Incremental steps ▸ Milestones for each step
11. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro BEFORE YOU START, YOU NEED: ▸ Clear business goal ▸ Incremental steps ▸ Milestones for each step ▸ A cool project name #branding ;)
12. DO REPEAT YOURSELF
13. EXAMPLES
14. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro BEFORE THE PROJECT STARTS
15. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro BEFORE THE PROJECT STARTS Metaphors Hoarders house, gardening, urban planning, personal hygiene…
16. @saleandro CUKENFEST 2018 BEFORE THE PROJECT STARTS Red and Green Diagram
17. @saleandro CUKENFEST 2018 BEFORE THE PROJECT STARTS Magic Wand Diagram
18. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro BEFORE THE PROJECT STARTS Application inventory ▸ List of all applications ▸ For each application, define its level of maintenance
19. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro BEFORE THE PROJECT STARTS Bones Muscle Fat (BMF) ▸ Framework to evaluate features using the product’s main proposition
20. If we were starting over, what would we build today, knowing what we know now?
21. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro DURING THE PROJECT
22. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro DURING THE PROJECT Audiences ▸ Wider company ▸ Your tech team
23. @saleandro CUKENFEST 2018 It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law Hofstadter's Law
24. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro DURING THE PROJECT ▸ Update Red and Green Diagram
25. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro DURING THE PROJECT ▸ Update Red and Green Diagram ▸ Track progress removing code
26. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro DURING THE PROJECT ▸ Update Red and Green Diagram ▸ Track progress removing code ▸ Gamify goals and metrics
30. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro WHEN IT’S FINISHED Celebrate completely decommissioning applications
31. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro WHEN IT’S FINISHED
32. @saleandro CUKENFEST 2018 A refactor a day keeps the rewrite away! Sabrina Leandro
33. DO REPEAT YOURSELF AGAIN
34. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro SUMMARY ▸ Have a clear business goal, incremental steps with milestones, and a cool project name
35. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro SUMMARY ▸ Have a clear business goal, incremental steps with milestones, and a cool project name ▸ Before: red and green diagrams + magic wand, application inventory, Bones Muscle Fat framework
36. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro SUMMARY ▸ Have a clear business goal, incremental steps with milestones, and a cool project name ▸ Before: red and green diagrams + magic wand, application inventory, Bones Muscle Fat framework ▸ During: celebrate all wins, big and small, gamify your progress
37. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro SUMMARY ▸ Have a clear business goal, incremental steps with milestones, and a cool project name ▸ Before: red and green diagrams + magic wand, application inventory, Bones Muscle Fat framework ▸ During: celebrate all wins, big and small, gamify your progress ▸ After: instil a culture of continuous improvement!
38. THANKS! @saleandro SABRINA LEANDRO
39. CUKENFEST 2018 @saleandro REFERENCES Frontend and services architecture: ▸ https://devblog.songkick.com/our-object-based-rails-frontend-3e2ddc048d12 ▸ https://devblog.songkick.com/the-path-to-soa-d986a18d4a8b Rewriting Code And Culture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VEf8j6aGMk Strangler pattern: https://www.martinfowler.com/bliki/StranglerApplication.html Gamify your progress: https://medium.com/@Songkick/gamify-your-product-team-to-power- level-9000-261e9fceaa22 Hoarders metaphor: https://brightonruby.com/2017/livable-code-sarah-mei/ Hofstadter’s Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstadter%27s_law A little bit and often: ▸ https://martinfowler.com/bliki/OpportunisticRefactoring.html ▸ http://ronjeffries.com/xprog/articles/refactoring-not-on-the-backlog/