1.
DISTRIBUTED TEAMS
KEVIN GOLDSMITH

2.
@KevinGoldsmith
WHO AM I?
▸ CTO @ Avvo, VPE @ Spotify, DoE @ Adobe, Dev Lead @ Microsoft, IBM
▸ Leading distributed organizations for 25 years
▸ Building agile since 2000

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@KevinGoldsmith
WHAT MAKES DISTRIBUTED
TEAMS CHALLENGING?

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@KevinGoldsmith
DISTRIBUTED TEAMS

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@KevinGoldsmith
DISTRIBUTED TEAMS
@KevinGoldsmith

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@KevinGoldsmith
DISTRIBUTED TEAMS
@KevinGoldsmith

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@KevinGoldsmith
DISTRIBUTED TEAMS

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@KevinGoldsmith
DISTRIBUTED TEAMS

9.
CONWAY’S LAW
CHALLENGES

10.
AMDAHL’S LAW
CHALLENGES

11.
EMPATHY
CHALLENGES

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COMMUNICATION
CHALLENGES

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@KevinGoldsmith
CONWAY’S LAW

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@KevinGoldsmith
CONWAY’S LAW
DATAMATION
APRIL, 1968

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@KevinGoldsmith
ORGANIZATIONS WHICH DESIGN SYSTEMS...
ARE CONSTRAINED TO PRODUCE DESIGNS
WHICH ARE COPIES OF THE COMMUNICATION
STRUCTURES OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS.
Melvin Conway
CONWAY’S LAW

16.
@KevinGoldsmith
ANY PIECE OF SOFTWARE
REFLECTS THE
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
THAT PRODUCED IT.
Conway’s Law restated

17.
@KevinGoldsmith
CONWAY’S LAW
THE MIRRORING HYPOTHESIS
“…products tend to “mirror” the architectures of the
organizations in which they are developed. This dynamic occurs
because the organization’s governance structures, problem
solving routines and communication patterns constrain the space
in which it searches for new solutions. “
Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the “Mirroring”
Hypothesis MacCormack, Baldwin, Rusnak - Harvard Business School, 2008

18.
@KevinGoldsmith
WHY?

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@KevinGoldsmith
CONWAY’S LAW
THE HOMOMORPHIC FORCE
▸ “Speaking as a mathematician might, we would say that there is a
homomorphism from the linear graph of a system to the linear graph of its
design organization.”

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@KevinGoldsmith
CONWAY’S LAW
HOMORPHISM
In abstract algebra, a homomorphism is a
structure-preserving map between two algebraic
structures (such as groups, rings, or vector
spaces).

21.
@KevinGoldsmith
CONWAY’S LAW
By Hagmann P, Cammoun L, Gigandet X, Meuli R, Honey CJ, et al. - File:Medial surface of cerebral cortex - gyri.png, CC BY 2.5, https://
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8636113

22.
PROBLEMATIC
THIS IS

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@KevinGoldsmith
ARE WE TRAPPED BY CONWAY’S
LAW?

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@KevinGoldsmith
NO.

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@KevinGoldsmith
BUT…

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@KevinGoldsmith
IT EASIER TO WORK WITH THE
HOMOMORPHIC FORCE THAN TO
FIGHT IT

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@KevinGoldsmith
BE DELIBERATE.

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@KevinGoldsmith
FIND COMMUNICATION BOTTLENECKS
THAT CONFLICT WITH ARCHITECTURE
AND ELIMINATE THEM.

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@KevinGoldsmith
DESIGN THE ORGANIZATION TO
DESIGN THE ARCHITECTURE.

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@KevinGoldsmith
THE REVERSE CONWAY
MANEUVER

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@KevinGoldsmith
IF THE PARTS OF AN ORGANIZATION (E.G. TEAMS, DEPARTMENTS, OR SUBDIVISIONS)
DO NOT CLOSELY REFLECT THE ESSENTIAL PARTS OF THE PRODUCT, OR IF THE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONS DO NOT REFLECT THE RELATIONSHIPS
BETWEEN PRODUCT PARTS, THEN THE PROJECT WILL BE IN TROUBLE. ...
THEREFORE: MAKE SURE THE ORGANIZATION IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE PRODUCT
ARCHITECTURE.
James O. Coplien and Neil B. Harrison,
Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development, 2004
DEALING WITH THE HOMOMORPHIC FORCE

32.
@KevinGoldsmith
NETFLIX LEARNED FROM THIS [AMAZON] EXAMPLE,
AND ENSURED THAT FROM THE BEGINNING IT
STRUCTURED ITSELF AROUND SMALL, INDEPENDENT
TEAMS, SO THAT THE SERVICES THEY CREATED WOULD
ALSO BE INDEPENDENT FROM EACH OTHER. THIS
ENSURED THAT THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE SYSTEM
WAS OPTIMIZED FOR SPEED OF CHANGE. EFFECTIVELY,
NETFLIX DESIGNED THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
FOR THE SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE IT WANTED.
Sam Newman, Building Microservices
BY MICHAEL J. BENNETT [CC BY-SA 3.0 (HTTPS://
CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY-SA/3.0)], FROM
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

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@KevinGoldsmith
AMDAHL’S LAW

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THE PERFORMANCE OF THE WHOLE IS ONLY AS
FAST AS IT’S SLOWEST PART
AMDAHL’S LAW (PARAPHRASED)

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@KevinGoldsmith
AMDAHL’S LAW
SERVER
CORE LIBRARY
IOS / MAC ANDROID WEB
INFRASTRUCTURE

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@KevinGoldsmith
AMDAHL’S LAW
SERVER
CORE LIBRARY
CLIENT
INFRASTRUCTURE

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@KevinGoldsmith
AMDAHL’S LAW
SERVER
CORE LIBRARY
CLIENT
INFRASTRUCTURE

38.
DIFFICULT
THIS IS

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@KevinGoldsmith
SPEED UP THE SLOWEST ELEMENT?

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@KevinGoldsmith
NO

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@KevinGoldsmith
RETHINK THE WHOLE SYSTEM!

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@KevinGoldsmith
WHERE ARE THE BOTTLENECKS?

43.
SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE
SOLUTIONS

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@KevinGoldsmith
WE FIND STRONG EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THE MIRRORING
HYPOTHESIS. IN ALL OF THE PAIRS WE EXAMINE, THE PRODUCT
DEVELOPED BY THE LOOSELY-COUPLED ORGANIZATION IS
SIGNIFICANTLY MORE MODULAR THAN THE PRODUCT FROM THE
TIGHTLY-COUPLED ORGANIZATION.
Exploring the Duality between Product and Organizational Architectures: A Test of the
“Mirroring” Hypothesis MacCormack, Baldwin, Rusnak - Harvard Business School, 2008
SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURES

45.
FULL-STACK TEAMS
SOLUTIONS

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@KevinGoldsmith
FULL-STACK TEAMS

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@KevinGoldsmith
AMDAHL’S LAW
SERVER
CORE LIBRARY
CLIENT
INFRASTRUCTURE

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@KevinGoldsmith
AMDAHL’S LAW
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAM

49.
LOCAL DECISION MAKING
SOLUTIONS

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@KevinGoldsmith
LEADERSHIP DRIVES
ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY

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@KevinGoldsmith
TEAMS DECIDE BEST HOW TO
DELIVER AGAINST THAT STRATEGY

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@KevinGoldsmith
USE MUTUALLY AGREED UPON
BUSINESS METRICS TO TRACK
ACHIEVEMENT

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@KevinGoldsmith
EMPATHY

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@KevinGoldsmith
FAMILIARITY BREEDS TRUST

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@KevinGoldsmith
EMPATHY

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@KevinGoldsmith
IS NOT THE SAME AS

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@KevinGoldsmith
EMPATHY
Image by Andreas Fischler

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LEVEL THE FIELD
SOLUTIONS

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@KevinGoldsmith
EMPATHY

60.
RECOGNIZE WARNING SIGNS
SOLUTIONS

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@KevinGoldsmith
WELL THAT IS FINE FOR YOU PEOPLE AT
CORPORATE…
Someone who has forgotten that the people they work with are
actual humans
EMPATHY WARNING SIGNS

62.
GET TOGETHER REGULARLY
SOLUTIONS

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@KevinGoldsmith
EMPATHY

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LEADERS TRAVEL
SOLUTIONS

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@KevinGoldsmith
LEADERS TRAVEL

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@KevinGoldsmith
LEADERS TRAVEL

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@KevinGoldsmith
LEADERS TRAVEL

68.
HUMANIZE
SOLUTIONS

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@KevinGoldsmith
EMPATHY

70.
INCLUDE REMOTE INDIVIDUALS
SOLUTIONS

71.
@KevinGoldsmith
EMPATHY

72.
@KevinGoldsmith
COMMUNICATION

73.
@KevinGoldsmith
DISTRIBUTED TEAMS

74.
@KevinGoldsmith
DISTRIBUTED TEAMS

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@KevinGoldsmith
DISTRIBUTED TEAMS

76.
FEWER CHANNELS
SOLUTIONS

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@KevinGoldsmith
COMMUNICATION

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DOCUMENT CLEARLY
SOLUTIONS

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@KevinGoldsmith
COMMUNICATION

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UTILIZE 1:1 & BROAD COMMUNICATION
SOLUTIONS

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@KevinGoldsmith
SUMMARY

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@KevinGoldsmith
REMOTE TEAMS CREATE
CHALLENGES

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@KevinGoldsmith
THE CHALLENGES CAN BE
OVERCOME

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@KevinGoldsmith
SUMMARY
PROBLEMS/SOLUTIONS
▸ Conway’s Law
▸ The reverse Conway Manuever
▸ Amdahl’s Law
▸ Modular architecture
▸ Full-stack teams
▸ Local decision making

85.
@KevinGoldsmith
SUMMARY
PROBLEMS/SOLUTIONS
▸ Empathy
▸ Level the field
▸ Recognize warning signs
▸ Get together regularly
▸ Humanize
▸ Include remote individuals

86.
@KevinGoldsmith
SUMMARY
PROBLEMS/SOLUTIONS
▸ Communication
▸ Use fewer channels
▸ Document Clearly

87.
DISTRIBUTED TEAMS
KEVIN GOLDSMITH
@KEVINGOLDSMITH
HTTPS://WWW.KEVINGOLDSMITH.COM