#DefragCon 2013 Notes: Sustainable Software Engineering Culture (Without The Ninjas) – Mike Gehard, Pivotal Labs
Sustainable Software Engineering Culture (Without The Ninjas) – Mike Gehard, Pivotal Labs Everyone wants predictability in an unpredictable world Sustainability over time is critical to becoming predictable Sustainable culture = (Transparency + Communication) * Discipline Transparency = honest and open, not secretive (harder is larger companies due to difficulty of communication) Communication = requires common system so that everyone understands Pivotal has Cloud Foundry, which is installed into enterprises and often requires agile process/XP consulting Standups – all hands and team Pair 8 hours a day Visible workload (using Pivotal Tracker) Nothing trapped in an email box Keep customers close Sitting next to them if possible, via Skype or other tools also works Ensure they are available to answer questions for developers Retrospective Tough discussions about what is working well, what isn’t working well This is a key to making an agile project successful “If you are doing retrospectives, you are not afraid to make decisions because you are only wrong until the next week’s retrospective” The result – willing to take more risks Discipline = orderly conduct as a result of training It doesn’t happen overnight – it takes effort and training The goal is to prevent running too fast and loose When things fall down, fall back to the process Pairing prevents wasting time on Twitter when not on a break (it shouldn’t be rigid) Hire for fit Don’t ask people to change dramatically. Find the people that work in a similar manner Keep your developers happy, as they are hard to find, expensive, and make better products resulting in happier customers
Sustainable Software Engineering Culture (Without The Ninjas) – Mike Gehard, Pivotal Labs
- Everyone wants predictability in an unpredictable world
- Sustainability over time is critical to becoming predictable
- Sustainable culture = (Transparency + Communication) * Discipline
- Transparency = honest and open, not secretive (harder is larger companies due to difficulty of communication)
- Communication = requires common system so that everyone understands
- Pivotal has Cloud Foundry, which is installed into enterprises and often requires agile process/XP consulting
- Standups – all hands and team
- Pair 8 hours a day
- Visible workload (using Pivotal Tracker)
- Nothing trapped in an email box
- Keep customers close
- Sitting next to them if possible, via Skype or other tools also works
- Ensure they are available to answer questions for developers
- Retrospective
- Tough discussions about what is working well, what isn’t working well
- This is a key to making an agile project successful
- “If you are doing retrospectives, you are not afraid to make decisions because you are only wrong until the next week’s retrospective”
- The result – willing to take more risks
- Discipline = orderly conduct as a result of training
- It doesn’t happen overnight – it takes effort and training
- The goal is to prevent running too fast and loose
- When things fall down, fall back to the process
- Pairing prevents wasting time on Twitter when not on a break (it shouldn’t be rigid)
- Hire for fit
- Don’t ask people to change dramatically. Find the people that work in a similar manner
- Keep your developers happy, as they are hard to find, expensive, and make better products resulting in happier customers