Creating effective highly distributed agile teams

19h time difference3 continents

Wojciech Seliga

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● 26 years of programming● 8 years with „big international corporations”● 7 years with agile● 3 years with Atlassian● 11 years in geographically distributed teams

and/or with remote customers

About me

Distributed agile is difficult

Do NOT do it, unless ...

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Valid reasons to go distributed

● No local talent available● Specific skills elsewhere● Customers elsewhere● Round the clock team● Great people move

Photo by Linus Bohman

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Invalid reasons to go distributed

● Cheaper workforce (hidden overhead)

● No office space● Desire to be „global”

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Do's

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Skilled & flexible people

● Agile really reveals problems, remoteness amplifies it

● Linchpins● Self-organisation● Passion (wild hours)● Domain knowledge● Communication● ResponsibilityPhoto by Helmut

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Build trust

● Deliver good stuff on time

● Do not overcommit● Meet deadlines● Be honest● Be transparent● Respect each other● Avoid bad surprises

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Face to Face

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Get to know your remote peers

● Cultural differences● Put names to the

faces● Responsibilities● S trengths and

weaknesses

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Virtual Meetings

● Iteration planning● Release planning● Iteration summary &

demo● S tand-up - once or

twice a week ● Daily progress

available onlinePhoto by Ha-Wee

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Human bridges

● Ambassadors● Touring rock stars● Visiting professors● Paratroopers● Foreign exchange

worker

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Good communication tools

● Video conferencing● Skype● IM (chat rooms)● Issue tracker● Wiki● And more...

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Code review

● Disseminate knowledge

● Build trust● Guest programming● Post commit vs. pre-

commit

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Rotating the pain

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Good fences make good neighbours

● Projects● Subsystems● Plugins● Vertical components● Interfaces● Clients / Servers● Platforms

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Dont's

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Micro-management

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Managers here, subordinates there

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Architects here, developers there

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Ignoring the fact of remoteness

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Cheaper workforce abroad

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Meeting overdose

Photo by Steve Smith

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Advantages of distributed teams

● Someone round the clock ● Less conflicts during commits and fixing tests● Taking over work started in the morning● Code reviewed by next morning● Time to cool-down before responding● Shorter and intensive communication● Fun (new places, new cultures)● Better computing resources utilisation - CI env is yours

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Takeaways

● Avoid distributed if you can

● Agile amplifies problems

● Assign your best people

● Understand risks● Take advantagePhoto by Edinburgh Blog

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wseliga@atlassian.com

Questions?