Vittorio Viarengo, ViVi software

Vittorio Viarengo Vice President Development Service Delivery Platform Oracle Fusion Middleware [email_address]

The information and statements contained in this presentation represent Vittorio Viarengo’s own point of view and opinions. They do NOT represent in anyway Oracle’s official position

Buon Pomeriggio

Agenda

From “Zena” to Silicon Valley

Lessons Learned

Creating High Performance Teams to Develop Innovative Products

Idea

Team

Vision

Process

Conclusions

Q&A

From Zena….

You Are Here

1988-1992 L’universita’ ed l’ITD-CNR

Corso di Ingegneria del Software

Proff. Giorgio Olimpo, Direttore Istituto Tecnologie Didattiche CNR

Borsa di Studio CNR

Incontro con Carlo Innocenti (Minollo)‏

Il Progetti Europei OSCAR e DISCOURSE

l’utilizzo di database Multimediali per supporto allo sviluppo di materiale didattico

Mandato della Comunita’ Europea di usare un Object Oriented Database

ObjectStore from Object Design

The New Idea/Product Template

Inflection Point

Object Database Technology

Customer Need

Better Productivity with Object Dabases

Product Idea/Vision

Do for Object Databases what Standard Query Tools did to SQL databases

Team

Carlo Innocenti and the ITD team

Execution

Passion

Early Lessons

Identify Opportunities

Learning opportunity

Embrace Change

Identify Mentors

Luigi Sarti, Augusto Chioccariello, Mauro Tavella, Giorgio Olimpo, Michela Ott, Donatella Persico

… and Team

Carlo Innocenti

1993

Prototype Ready

Demo sent to Object Design

Invitation to Object Design User Conference in Boston

“ Meet the customer”

Object Design Rejection…

Customer Encouragement

External Inflection Points

Industry moving from Windows to the Windows NT platform

Compiler market moving from Borland (OWL) to the Microsoft C++ Compiler and MFC

ViVi Software’s First Trade Show

1993- 1994 – ViVi Software

ViVi Software is formed

Alberto Massari and Ivan Pedruzzi join the Team

Headquartered in…

A basement in Corso Dogali

Product Is Re-written in 3 months

Beta is ready for customers

Product is presented to Object Design

Still, no love

Product is presented to Customers

Still…. Lot’s of Love!!!

ViVi Software

ViVi Software @ Work

Lessons

Take Risks

Open your “Partita IVA” 

Talk to Customers!!!!

And Listen…

Focus, focus, and… focus

Cut deep, cut early

Cut the Schema Design, focus on browsing tool

Turn down “easy” money, focus on long term vision

(Re-)Embrace Change

New platform, new compiler,…

Don’t be afraid of complete Re-writes

Work the Network

Alberto, Ivan…

Customer leads

Hire A+ People

ITEA Prize

1995

Visual Object Manager 1.0

Product Ready and Shipping

Internet for e-Commerce

The Shrink-wrapping Machine….

Marketing, leads, customers

Worldwide Mailing Campaign

Near-real Time Technical Support

Lessons

The Joy of building products

There is nothing like shipping products to customers

… and see them deployed

Attention to Details

Believe

Work hard…really hard

If it was easy, somebody else would have done it already

Love and pamper your customers

1996 The OEM Agreement with Object Design

Object Design Management Change

Bob Goldman

OEM Agreement is Signed

The first real money…

Visual Object Manager become ObjectStore Inspector

Inspector 2.0, another huge leap forward

… but… business model not sustainable

1997: Object Design Buys ViVi Software

The Negotiation

1998: ViVi Software goes to Boston

Lessons

Always know the value of you company

If you don’t, let the buyer make the first offer…

Hire a good lawyer

Engineers can be good negotiators… 

Minollo turns tough business man

You Are Here… … now

1998-2001 The Experience in Boston

Risk and Speed

Fast track promotions

New Technology and Inflection Points

The Internet

XML

Meeting Adam Bostworth

Meeting Carl Sjogreen

NASDAQ at 5200

From reality to - easy money and return…

Workforce Mobility

Lesson Learned Vendi, Guadagna e… Pentiti

You Thought you were going to be here… … but you a really here now

Seattle and Silicon Valley

Adam Bosworth Aggressive Recruiting Techniques

Move to Seattle, then to San Jose, the capital of Silicon Valley

Join BEA Systems in Seattle

Build the First Integrated Java Platform …the Visual Basic of Java

Recruit Carl… again..

Adam’s Team

Tod Nielsen, Rod Chavez, David Bau, Mark Igra, ….

And the WebLogic Team

Scott Diezen (the father of J2EE)…

The Oracle Opportunity

BEA

Oracle

Lesson Learned

Work with Great People on Great things

Title and Money are always secondary

You have to move where the opportunity is

Job mobility in IT is a fact of life

Creating Innovative Products The IT World Seen from a Simple Baker’s Eyes

Most high-performance teams are motivated by one thing (primarily)…

Changing the World

Define a World…

… and change it!!!

Changing the World: Steps

Need an Inflection Point

“ And yet it does move”

Customer Need

Idea/Vision

“ Give me a lever and a fulcrum and I shall move the world ” , Archimedes

Team

People who have done it before and… who have NOT done it

Execution

Strategy gets you on the playing field, but execution execution pays the bills. “, Gordon Eubanks

The Idea

Better be a great Idea – D U H !

Better be original

Only big companies can afford building me-too products

“ look at something people are trying to do, and figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't suck” Paul Graham

Examples: Google Search,

Idea Sources

Customer (careful how you listen to customer, they will make you build yesterday products)‏

Engineers

Business People

Better be mad about something

Best idea comes from people mad at something

The Idea

Look for disruptive technologies

Examples: HTTP, Java, Broadband

Look for disruptive Business Models

Google Pay-per-click, Software as a service (Salesforce.com), virtual Stores (Yahoo stores, eBay, Amazon), Open Source software

One-Sentence Rule

You should be able to express a good idea in one sentence

The KISS Principle

Keep It Simple and Stupid …or, Keep it Simple, Stupid

Recognize Relevant Cycles: Standardization

The Standardization Cycle

Examples: J2EE, WebServices, BPEL, …

Recognize Relevant Cycles: Tech Cycles

Technology Products Tend to go Through Cycles

E.g. Thick client (Client Server)-Thin client (HTML)-Thick(er) client (AJAX)‏

Convergence-divergence:

Application Development – Application Integration

Weather-site, Stock Quote Site, Email… - Portals

Phone-PDA-> Smart Phone

Phone-Camera->Camera-phone

Telephony-IT Technology

Fixed Telephony spinning off Mobile branches and now buying them back

The Team

“ What matters is not ideas, but the people who have them. Good people can fix bad ideas, but good ideas can't save bad people” Paul Graham

Team – Hiring/Interviewing

Hire Smart people who Get Things Done

Have a rigorous interview process that everybody understands and follows

Define an interview plan, split responsibilities

Ask tough programming questions to engineers

Ask situational questions

Ask impossible questions

How many gas stations are in Genova?

Ask technical questions outside the domain

Design an elevator

Make sure all relevant people interview the candidate

The team has to Buy-In the candidate which creates positive environment for candidate to succeed

Hire for Talent not for Knowledge

Team-Hiring/Interview Remember!!!!! As hire As Bs hire Cs

Team - Hiring

If you have even a single doubt-> NO HIRE

See people 2-3 times before hiring

You will see the typical personality patterns emerge after the second meeting

Take people out to dinner before making the offer

See how they behave in a social environment

See http:// www.joelonsoftware.com /

Team-Hiring In many cases you will spend more time with your new hire that with your relevant other…

Team Composition - General

Only Hire As

An A engineer is 10 to  infinite times more productive than a B one

Build the right culture from the very beginning

Building a team == baking a cake

Balance Junior vs. Senior

Know yourself and your Team

E.g. Meyer Briggs

Do you have the right DNA?

If not, go hire or buy a company

If you are embarking in a product line extension, definitely buy

You don’t need big teams to change the world

8-10 developers can write a lot of code

“ The leaders of Great Groups love talent and know where to find it. They revel in the talent of others .” Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius

“ The leaders of Great Teams, are fanatic, relentless, persistent, aggressive… recruiters”

Why Do We love Freaks?

(1) Because when Anything Interesting happens … it was a freak who did it. (Period.)

(2) Freaks are fun. (Freaks are also a pain.) (Freaks are never boring.)

(3) We need freaks . Especially in freaky times. (Hint: These are freaky times, for you & me & the CIA & the Army & Avon.)

(4) A critical mass of freaks-in-our-midst automatically make us-who-are-not-so-freaky at least somewhat more freaky. (Which is a Good Thing in freaky times—see immediately above.)

(5) Freaks are the only (ONLY) ones who succeed—as in, make it into the history books.

(6) Freaks keep us from falling into ruts. (If we listen to them.) (We seldom listen to them.) (Which is why most of us—and our organizations—are in ruts. Make that chasms.)‏

Team - Misc

The 5 Fs Principle

Fun, Fame, Fortune, Family, Force, …

Execution

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week." (General George S. Patton)‏

Vision-Goals-Metrics

You need a compelling Vision and Mission

Microsoft: 1 computer on every desktop

GE: Be n.1 or n.2 in every market we play

Set aggressive Goals

You only get what you ask for

Belief-action-results

A man on the moon within the next 10 years

Everybody needs to be behind it

Agree, disagree… commit

… but listen to the “bastian contrario” routinely

Re-assess the Vision when appropriate

Vision, culture and metrics fight politics (cook a good cake)‏

Constantly Measure Results Against Goals

If you don’t measure it you don’t know where you are… …and when you get there

Manage the Vision, Manage Mentor People

Map Individual goals to product and corporate vision

Makes sure everybody knows what is their contribution to the vision

Don’t promote Great Engineers to management Positions – Define Separate Career Paths

Unless that’s what they want to do

Know yourself and know the team

Myers-Briggs test

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

You CANNOT change people!!!!!

Establish Measurable goals and personal development plans and review them every 6-12 month

Measure everybody

Overcompensate the top performers

And Routinely Remove the bottom 5% (if applicable)‏

Vision and Values

Define and practice corporate values

It is an important ingredient of “the cake”

Respect, Customer Focus, Accountability,…

Innovation, Integrity, Excellence in Execution, …

3Ps Promise, “Phollow” through,

Apply those values in everything you do, starting from beginning, starting from the top

… or else it is just BS

E.G. The Value of my Team at Oracle

“ We care!”

Embrace Change

Change is a fact of life and it is a known constant of software development

Embrace change

Team Functions The “One ass to kick” Principle

Management/Founders

Technical Innovation Comes From Technical People

Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Sergei Brin…

History seems to show that you are better off with a technical people at the elm

… in technology companies

Team Composition - Functions

“ Separate Church and State” AKA in Software as “Separate Product Management and Engineering”

Keep PM motivated by customer and business drivers

Keep engineers motivated by: tough problem to solve, quality, performance, punctuality

Keep Sales people away from your engineers and requirements

Sales input through product management

Product Management

What and why

Product Design/Doc

Responsible for user-centered design

Engineering (QA, Sustained Engineering)

Responsible for changing the world

Define “how” and “how long”

Architecture

Holds the key to the overall architecture f the product

Team Functions - Continued

Business Development

Develops the business 

Marketing

Sales

Pre-sales

Consulting

SWATT Team

The Product Manager Role

The CEO of the Product (area)

Responsible for ALL the user-visible aspect of the product

User-Focused

Business Focussed

First User of the product

Defines the “What” we build and “Why”

Defines what NOT to build and why

PM makes cuts/trade-off

PMs keep everybody a little unhappy

Define the product as a whole

Features, Packaging, Support, Price….

Outside Customers:

The guy who writes the check

The guy who uses the product

Product Management Team

Inside Customers:

Engineering: Roadmap/Requirements/Use Cases/Cuts/Tradeoff

Marketing: content-positioning

Sales: training, pre-sales support

Channel: Sis/ISVs

Post-sales escalations

1 (PM)/6 Developers

Product Designer (AKA Program Manager) Role

Program mgmt resides between development and product management… and customers

First User of the product

Customers:

Outside: the user of the product

Inside: Engineering- Specs…

Written product specification

The PD is responsible for writing down the specification. He/she is not responsible for all ideas and all Specs

Use Case Implementation

The PD builds prototypes, implements customers use cases and oversees the "usability test" of the features/interfaces

Ensure consistent User Experience

API-UI

Product Designer: Tell Me More

File Bugs

All implementation trade-offs

Fine-grained trade-offs that impact user visible aspects of the product

Coordination of the product development groups

outside product group

Customer Visits (35%)‏

In depth technical product presentations to customer

Functional Specification validation

Alpha-Beta validation

Use case gathering

Engineering

Architects

Who take accountability for the architecture?

The KISS Principle. Keep It Simple, (and) Stupid

QA

Depending on the product keep a 1-2 to 2-3 QA/Dev ratio

Only hire A

Make QA an engineering problem, avoid delegation

Performance

Have performance engineers if you can afford it or make it a developer’s problem

Measure, measure and measure from the first build on

Release Management

Track the details to get the product out the door

10-1-1 AKA Eat the Dog Food

Work hard 10 month, take a month off, work one month at a customer site using your product

How We Make Decisions

Clear Decision Owner

One ass to kick

Publish Time Frame

Communication

Agree, Disagree, Commit

Lead, follow, or get out of the way!!!

Process

Idea

Validate the Idea

High Level PRD (Product Requirement Document)‏

Product Management, involve key engineers/architect

Build Prototype

Hit the Road

Validate high level requirements and prototype with customers

Implementation: The Old Way: Waterfall

Specifications

Don’t write single line of code that does not have a design note behind it

Get sign off from Architect, PM and Release manager

Development

Adopt and enforce one methodology

Build everyday (multiple times a day)‏

Punish who breaks the build

Process the New Way

Scrum and Agile Development

Scrums Roles

Product Owner

Defines the backlog, represents customers, prioritizes features

Role may be filled by PM, Dev Managers, VP depending on “product” definition

Scrum-Master

Facilitates the project, identifies and removes impediments

The “Project Manager” of Scrum

Does not have seniority or “power” over scrum team

Project Team

Development Engineers

QA Engineers

Documentation Writers

Product Managers (who are not product owners)‏

The Importance of “Doneness” Definition of Done

Process

Ramp Down

Carefully triage the bugs daily to see what gets pushed out

SHIP

Get drunk and take a week off

Work on Service Pack 1

Conclusions

Embrace Change

Stay Close to, Talk to, Listen to , and Pamper your Customers

Work Hard, Very Hard

with Passion

Grafico Nasdaq

Mentor

Esempio di Persone Brillanti (David Bau, Indu…)‏

Riconoscere I cicli (Thin-thick, Standards, Chasm)‏

Stay at the course

Life is made of tradeoff (examples: ViVi Software, Net4Call,…)‏

Multicultural

Political Correctness and Sexual harassment

Code Rules

Talk to customers always (and listen)‏

Eat the dog food

Reading Material

Developer Productivity

http:// www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HighNotes.html

How to start a company

http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html

Adam Bostworth Blog

http://www.adambosworth.net/

Kiss Principle

Backup Slides

1. Cultivate & reward creativity. 2. Invest in the creative ecosystem. 3. Embrace diversity. 4. Nurture the creatives. 5. Value risk-taking. 6. Be authentic (emphasize uniqueness) 7. Invest in and build on quality of place. 8. Remove barriers to creativity. 9. Take responsibility for change. Development as D.I.Y. 10. Ensure that every person, especially children, has the right to creativity. Become a “Steward of creativity.” * 2003/The Creative 100/Memphis Source: Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class

The Memphis Manifesto* Building a Community of Ideas

Kevin Roberts’ Credo

1 . Ready. Fire! Aim. 2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it! 3. Hire crazies. 4. Ask dumb questions. 5. Pursue failure. 6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way! 7. Spread confusion. 8. Ditch your office. 9. Read odd stuff. 10. Avoid moderation !

Interview