Revised version of my previous talk. A few ground rules on not to fuck up collaboration with remote teams.

1. H O W T O F U C K U P
R E M O T E D E V E L O P M E N T
I N T E N E A S Y S T E P S T O D I S A S T E R
E X P E R T A D V I C E B Y C H R I S P H I L I P P S
N F Q Y E P C O N F E R E N C E 2 4 J A N U A RY 2 0 1 9

2. H O W N O T T O F U C K U P
R E M O T E D E V E L O P M E N T
I N T E N E A S Y S T E P S T O D I S A S T E R S U C C E S S
E X P E R T H U M B L E A D V I C E B Y C H R I S P H I L I P P S
N F Q Y E P C O N F E R E N C E 2 4 J A N U A RY 2 0 1 9

3. • Startups since 2000
• Interim CTO since 2010
• Tech advisory for startups and VCs
(Tech Due Diligence, Health Checks,
Leadership Development )
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H I , I ’ M C H R I S

4. I ’ M A N E X P E R T AT F U C K - U P S
• Worked as developer in remote setups
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5. I ’ M A N E X P E R T AT F U C K - U P S
• Reviewed 100+ teams in Tech Due Diligences and health checks
~ 30% of them had remote development as part of the setup
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6. I ’ M A N E X P E R T AT F U C K - U P S
• Managed remote teams as CTO (near-shore/off-shore, distributed teams)
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7. I ’ M A N E X P E R T AT F U C K - U P S
• Did almost all the mistakes myself at least once
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8. D E F I N E ( ‘ R E M O T E D E V E L O P M E N T ’ ) ;
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Off-shoring
Near-shoring
Classical agency model
Exchangeable “resources”
Project work
Dedicated long-term teams
Distributed teams
Distributed mixed teams (internal and external)
Remote-working freelancers
Home Office
(Open Source projects)

9. D E F I N E ( ‘ R E M O T E D E V E L O P M E N T ’ ) ;
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Dedicated long-term teams (internal and external)
working together across 2 or more locations

10. W H AT A B O U T Y O U ?
Status Quo?
Happiness Index?
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11. U S U A L M O T I VAT I O N
• Time to market
• Difficult to find permanent developers working on-site
• Cost savings
• Flexibility
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12. T H E B A D N E W S
• Not all of these reasons are good reasons
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13. H O W D O E S T H E R O A D T O D I S A S T E R L O O K L I K E ?
[Real Life Example]
!13http://i.imgur.com/VYNouxj.jpg

14. W H Y D O E S I T FA I L ?
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15. W H Y D O E S I T FA I L ?
Because people assume it’s cheap and easy!
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16. W H Y D O E S I T FA I L ?
It is not cheap if you do it right.
It is one of the hardest choices you can pick.
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17. W H Y D O E S I T FA I L ?
It requires a certain level of maturity in your
organisation.
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18. W H Y D O E S I T FA I L ?
It requires a certain mindset.
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19. S O H O W D O N ’ T W E F U C K I T U P ?
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20. T H E B A S I C S
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21. T H E B A S I C S
0. FIXED PRICE, FIXED SCOPE
“Of course we can do this!” (in a reeaaally shitty quality)
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22. T H E B A S I C S
1. Company culture
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” - “Which culture?”
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23. T H E B A S I C S
2. Respect
“I told the guys in India again to fix their shit!”
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24. T H E B A S I C S
3. Kill Scapegoating. Immediately
“We would like to do it right but they did it wrong again”
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25. T H E B A S I C S
4. Distribution of new (exciting) work
“The other guys make great new stuff and we must take care of the mess”
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26. T H E B A S I C S
5. Visibility
“Oh sorry, we forgot to invite the team in Kiev!”
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27. T H E B A S I C S
6. EXCELLENT communication technology
“Again, what did you say?”
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28. T H E B A S I C S
7. On-site time
“We can’t send Thomas to Bangalore. We don’t have budget for this.”
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29. B O N U S P O I N T S A G A I N S T T O TA L D I S A S T E R
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30. B O N U S P O I N T S A G A I N S T T O TA L D I S A S T E R
8. Standards across teams
“tabs or spaces?”
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31. B O N U S P O I N T S A G A I N S T T O TA L D I S A S T E R
9. Decoupled Architecture
“They broke my code AGAIN!”
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32. B O N U S P O I N T S A G A I N S T T O TA L D I S A S T E R
10. Great Engineers
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“For the money he wants we could get 4 junior developers instead!”
“Believe me: You don’t want this!”

33. C O N C L U S I O N
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34. C O N C L U S I O N
Remote software development can work, but it
requires time, money, effort and dedication
from everyone being involved
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35. C O N C L U S I O N
It does not work if you pick it because it is
“cheap” or “easy”.
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36. TA K E A WAY S
Minimum requirements:
• Great engineers
• Excellent remote communication equipment / infrastructure
• Plenty of face-time (travel)
• Shared standards
• Lots of cultural work to create a collaborative spirit
• Trust
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37. T H A N K Y O U !
chris@philipps-byrne.com
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38. T H A N K Y O U !
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