Rewriting code and culture - RubyConf Aus

This is the story of a company that survived a much needed transformation of its product and codebase, but most importantly, of its culture. There's no real prescription for being agile. It's about the journey a team takes to discover how to best work together and deliver great products.

In this presentation, I'll share a candid view of a team trying to overcome a slow product development process. How we refactored our way out of badly coupled code, moved to continuous deployment, and greatly improved our approach to product and software development.

From Ruby Conf Australia, Melbourne 2015.

Transcript

1. Rewriting code and culture
   Sabrina Leandro
   @saleandro
   

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2. 1. Lessons from a rewrite project
   2. Some code
   3. Cultural changes
   

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3. A story about…
   

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6. This is hell!
   

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7. Lessons on rewriting code
   

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8. Know your product
   

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12. That is, where the impact of the changes
    will be seen sooner.
    Start where it hurts the most
    

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13. songkick.com
    Rails app
    Ruby services
    

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14. songkick.com
    Rails app
    Ruby services
    

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15. songkick.com
    Rails app
    Ruby services
    

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16. songkick.com
    Rails app
    Ruby services
    Land of legacy dragons
    

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17. Build a new, simplified web app
    based on core iPhone features
    so that we can improve
    the immediate velocity roadblocks
    and move onto building quickly
    on top of this core foundation.
    One main goal
    

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18. • Define project scope
    • Have a clear deadline
    • Weekly checkpoints
    • No new features
    Know when it ends
    

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19. Deleting your favourite features is hard!
    But when you know your product, you
    can be ruthless.
    Deleting is faster than rewriting
    

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20. Changes in master.
    Release incrementally.
    Improve your release process.
    Validate your assumptions
    

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21. Learn to iterate
    

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22. Release cycle is more than software
    development.
    Learn to iterate
    

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23. Release cycle is more than software
    development.
    Learn to iterate
    

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24. Release cycle is more than software
    development.
    Give developers the right context, and
    trust them to make the right decisions.
    Learn to iterate
    

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25. New front-end architecture
    

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26. venue-info
    event-brief
    additional-details
    event-social related-events
    the
    Event
    page
    

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27. controllers/
    events_controller.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    page_models/
    event.rb
    event/
    brief.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    services/
    event_listings.rb
    views/
    events/
    _brief.html.erb
    show.html.erb
    assets/
    stylesheets/
    event.css
    components/
    event-brief.css
    

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28. controllers/
    events_controller.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    page_models/
    event.rb
    event/
    brief.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    services/
    event_listings.rb
    views/
    events/
    _brief.html.erb
    show.html.erb
    assets/
    stylesheets/
    event.css
    components/
    event-brief.css
    class EventsController <
    ApplicationController
    def show
    @page = PageModels::Event.new(event)
    end
    end
    

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29. class PageModels::Event < PageModels::Base
    def brief
    PageModels::Event::Brief.new(@event)
    end
    end
    controllers/
    events_controller.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    page_models/
    event.rb
    event/
    brief.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    services/
    event_listings.rb
    views/
    events/
    _brief.html.erb
    show.html.erb
    assets/
    stylesheets/
    event.css
    components/
    event-brief.css
    

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30. class PageModels::Event::Brief
    def event_title
    @event.festival? ?
    @event.festival_name :
    @event.headliners.first.name
    end
    end
    controllers/
    events_controller.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    page_models/
    event.rb
    event/
    brief.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    services/
    event_listings.rb
    views/
    events/
    _brief.html.erb
    show.html.erb
    assets/
    stylesheets/
    event.css
    components/
    event-brief.css
    

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31. Duplication in front-end code is okay.
    DRY is for domain models
    

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32. show.html.erb
    
    
    
    _brief.html.erb
    
    
    
    controllers/
    events_controller.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    page_models/
    event.rb
    event/
    brief.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    services/
    event_listings.rb
    views/
    events/
    _brief.html.erb
    show.html.erb
    assets/
    stylesheets/
    event.css
    components/
    event-brief.css
    

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33. event.css
    @import ‘components/event-brief.css’;
    event-brief.css
    .brief h1 {
    color: #f80046;
    }
    controllers/
    events_controller.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    page_models/
    event.rb
    event/
    brief.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    services/
    event_listings.rb
    views/
    events/
    _brief.html.erb
    show.html.erb
    assets/
    stylesheets/
    event.css
    components/
    event-brief.css
    

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34. From idea to code.
    Shared language
    

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35. Fast release cycle = fast build
    

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36. Delete or rewrite tests.
    Fast release cycle = fast build
    

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37. Delete or rewrite tests.
    Cost of making a small change must be small.
    Fast release cycle = fast build
    

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38. Delete or rewrite tests.
    Cost of making a small change must be small.
    Monitor errors in production.
    Fast release cycle = fast build
    

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39. First step towards a
    service-oriented
    architecture
    

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40. class EventsController <
    ApplicationController
    def show
    @event = Event.find(params[:id])
    …
    end
    end
    class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
    end
    controllers/
    events_controller.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    page_models/
    event.rb
    event/
    brief.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    services/
    event_listings.rb
    views/
    events/
    _brief.html.erb
    show.html.erb
    assets/
    stylesheets/
    event.css
    components/
    event-brief.css
    

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41. controllers/
    events_controller.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    page_models/
    event.rb
    event/
    brief.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    services/
    event_listings.rb
    views/
    events/
    _brief.html.erb
    show.html.erb
    assets/
    stylesheets/
    event.css
    components/
    event-brief.css
    class EventsController <
    ApplicationController
    def show
    event = Models::Event.from_id(params[:id])
    @page = PageModels::Event.new(event)
    end
    end
    

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42. class Models::Event
    def self.from_id(id)
    data =
    Services.event_listings.event_from_id(id)
    new(data)
    end
    def initialize(data)
    @id = data[‘id’]
    @date = Date.parse(data[‘date’])
    # etc.
    end
    end
    controllers/
    events_controller.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    page_models/
    event.rb
    event/
    brief.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    services/
    event_listings.rb
    views/
    events/
    _brief.html.erb
    show.html.erb
    assets/
    stylesheets/
    event.css
    components/
    event-brief.css
    

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43. class Services::EventListings
    def event_from_id(id)
    ar_event = ::Event.find(id)
    ar_event.to_hash
    end
    end
    class Event < ActiveRecord::Base
    def to_hash
    {
    'id' => id,
    'date' => date.to_s,
    # etc.
    }
    end
    end
    controllers/
    events_controller.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    page_models/
    event.rb
    event/
    brief.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    services/
    event_listings.rb
    views/
    events/
    _brief.html.erb
    show.html.erb
    assets/
    stylesheets/
    event.css
    components/
    event-brief.css
    

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44. class Services::EventListings
    def event_from_id(id)
    response = http.get(“/events/#{id}")
    JSON.parse(response.body)
    end
    end
    controllers/
    events_controller.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    page_models/
    event.rb
    event/
    brief.rb
    models/
    event.rb
    services/
    event_listings.rb
    views/
    events/
    _brief.html.erb
    show.html.erb
    assets/
    stylesheets/
    event.css
    components/
    event-brief.css
    

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45. songkick.com
    Rails app
    Ruby services
    Land of legacy dragons
    

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48. Happiness
    

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49. Cultural changes
    

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50. Rewriting culture
    

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51. Rewriting culture
    …through collaboration between
    developers, designers, and product
    managers.
    

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52. Rewriting culture
    …through collaboration between
    developers, designers, and product
    managers.
    Collaboration builds shared understanding.
    

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53. Culture in practice
    

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54. • Shared language
    Culture in practice
    

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55. • Shared language
    • Small releases
    Culture in practice
    

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56. • Shared language
    • Small releases
    • Iterate design and product development
    Culture in practice
    

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57. Close collaboration from the start
    • Developers involved in the idea
    development stage
    • Kick off meeting to define what we’re
    building and why
    Culture in practice
    

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58. Developer and designer pairing
    • Browser becomes the art board
    • Wider team gets involved with the way
    the product looks and feels
    Culture in practice
    

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59. A clean codebase is just
    a means to an end.
    Rewriting culture
    

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60. Learn to collaborate and work in a
    multidisciplinary team.
    They make for happier teams, better products,
    and can even improve your code’s quality.
    Rewriting culture
    

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61. Links
    The client-side of SOA
    http://devblog.songkick.com/2012/08/30/the-client-side-of-soa/
    Path to SOA
    http://devblog.songkick.com/2012/09/06/the-path-to-soa/
    Our object-based Rails frontend
    http://devblog.songkick.com/2012/09/14/our-object-based-rails-
    frontend/
    :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3noDS5uoK8o
    

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62. Thanks!
    Sabrina Leandro
    @saleandro
    

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