This document discusses approaches to modern software development with distributed teams. It begins by looking at historical examples like the Hudson's Bay Company and the Linux kernel project. Key factors that enable effective distributed development are then discussed, such as effective communication tools, talented and committed people, respect for different times and cultures, optimal team size, transparency, and trust. The document provides various definitions for different types of distributed teams and development approaches. It asks the audience about their role and organization. Metrics for measuring the success of distributed development are proposed. Best practices from real-world examples are shared, focusing on people and interactions over processes and tools. Tips are provided for both experienced professionals and others new to distributed work.

1. APPROCCI MODERNI ALLO SVILUPPO
SOFTWARE:
LA SFIDA DEITEAM DISTRIBUITI
A webinar for CodeMotion #TechDay - Jan, 21st, 2014

2. /ME
@carloz

3. DOES DISTRIBUTED
PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT WORK?

4. Hudson Bay Company
distributed work since1670
trust and control via hiring,
communication and
participation practices
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Indians_at_a_Hudson_Bay_Company_trading_pos

5. DOES DISTRIBUTED
MODERN PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT WORK?

6. LINUX KERNEL
• internet
• copyleft (incentive systems)
• transparency
• leadership
• modularity
• communities of practice
http://pixabay.com/p-158547

7. NAMING CONVENTIONS
#OFFSHORING, #NEARSHORING, #HOMESHORING, #OUTSOURCING
• REMOTE TEAM: team members are co-located. Somewhere else. (BTW, where is the BIZ
seated?)
• REMOTE TEAM MEMBER: one team member works from home (or another office)
• MULTI-SITE DEVELOPMENT: team members are co-located. Different teams work together
on the same product from different locations.
• DISTRIBUTED TEAM: team members are NOT co-located
• DISTRIBUTED COMPANY: whole company embraces distributed work

8. WHAT
ABOUT YOU?
Are you more a requestor, a coordinator, or a
developer?
How large is the organization?
Do you deal with remote and/or distributed teams?
http://bit.do/techday

9. DOES DISTRIBUTED MODERN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT WORK?
HOW DO WE KNOW IT’S WORKING?
HOW DO WE MEASURE SUCCESS?
(LET’STRY & USETHE WEBINAR Q&A FUNCTION!)

10. A FEW GOOD INDICATORS
• how much?
• how fast?
• how often?
• how good?
• how happy? (customers, team)
• how much money? (ROI)
• (how do we compare it to a less or non distributed approach?)
• “capability of delivering quickly & frequently high quality, valuable, software”

12. • “great remote workers are simply great
workers”
• “most remote issues are really trust issues”
• “people play games and watch youtube in the
office, as well, if they want to”

14. WHAT MAKES IT WORK?
• your take: http://bit.do/funziona
• which are the enablers? the key things that make a
difference

15. FROMTHETRENCHES
• effective communication (tools to support realtime & async comm. + storage;
frequent travels)
• talented, committed people
• respect (different times, cultures)
• optimal team size and mix
• “common ground”
• trust
• transparency

16. A. HIRING
B. MANAGING

17. case year n of ppl
company
size
“success
rate”
#1 2008 3 8 2/10
#2 2009 8 14 1/10
#3 2011/15 70+ 550 8/10
#4 2012/14 14 170 6/10
#5 2014 4 4 7/10
#6 2014 15 950 4/10
#7 2013/14 22 950 3/10

18. A Chinese tale
image from https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3274/2461440599_d55ff90806.jpg

19. HYGENE
FACTORS
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Toiletpapier_(Gobran111).jpg

20. . . .AGILE . . .
• teamwork and collaboration
• short feedback cycles
• inspect and adapt
• same principles, contextual practices (& tools)

21. GOING
DISTRIBUTED?
DO IT FORTHE
RIGHT REASONS!
https://lh5.ggpht.com/SNdIq3FdZsul4tbC2NZkG3N8lNwoELywBlec6_quA6-NZ74YBekMGjuQEZisJ6jFXTxGnozRWiSgEj1OZDELFkfQrlE=s0

22. TIPS FORTHE PRO

23. Alistar Cockburn
“Software development is a cooperative game”

24. Dan North
“Ignorance is the single greatest impediment to
throughput”

25. SUGGESTIONS FORTHE REST
OF US

26. DOES DISTRIBUTED
MODERN PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT WORK?

27. RULE OFTHUMB
“If you are working well with
this team while co-located, it
is reasonable to assume that
you may work well with them
while distributed.”
(“The best way to test your
assumption is to run an
experiment”)
https://gohelpyourself.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/thumb.jpg

28. PEOPLE AND INTERACTIONS
OVER
PROCESSES ANDTOOLS

29. TIPS FORTHE BIG ONES

30. “After working for some years in
the domain of
offshore
distilled our experience and advice
down to the following:
Craig Larman, Scaling Lean and Agile
Development, p. 1

31. remote work (http://dilbert.com/strip/2009-09-03)

32. remote team (http://dilbert.com/strip/1996-02-20)

33. teaching to remote team (http://dilbert.com/strip/1998-10-14)

34. Craig Larman, Scaling Lean and Agile Development, p. 1
“There are better ways to build large systems than
with many developers in many places. Rather, build a
small group of great developers and other talents
that can work together in teams, pay them well, and
keep them together in one place with product
management or whoever acts as the voice of the
customer.”

35. FINALTHOUGHTS
• co-located product development is easier
• inspect your position in the “agile fluency” journey. act
accordingly.
• (your effectiveness in distributed product development
may be a good indicator of your organization “agility”)
• run experiments

36. GET MORE …
• [article] DistributedWorkforce - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_workforce
• [paper] Essence of Distributed Work: The Case of the Linux Kernel, J.Yun Moon and L. Sprout, 2000 - http://firstmonday.org/ojs/
index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/801/710
• [book] Distributed Work, P J Hinds and S. Kieser, 2000, http://www.amazon.com/Distributed-Work-Pamela-J-Hinds/dp/0262083051/
• [post] Geographically distributed agile teams, S.W.Ambler, https://disciplinedagiledelivery.wordpress.com/agility-at-scale/
geographically-distributed-agile-teams/
• [article] Working with agile in a distributed team environment, S. Joshi - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/
hh771057.aspx
• [post] Our top 10 tips for distributed development teams, N. Pellow, - http://blogs.atlassian.com/2014/05/top-10-tips-distributed-
development-teams/
• [book] Remote: Office Not Required, J. Fried & D. Heinemeier Hansson, 2013, http://www.amazon.com/Remote-Office-Not-
Required/dp/0804137501

37. … & MORE
• [video] How I fell down the rabbit's hole: life and work at the distributed wonderland, L. Sartoni - https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=kEvuT9LTNdY
• [post] Remote working: istruzioni per l’uso,A. Salomone - http://www.ideato.it/remote-working-istruzioni-per-luso/
• [post] The Joys and Benefits of working as a distributed team, J. Gascoigne, http://joel.is/the-joys-and-benefits-of-working-as-a-
distributed-team/
• [post] Four years of remote working, D. Pomfret, http://simpleasmilk.com/blog/four-years-of-remote-working/
• [book] Scaling Lean & Agile Development: Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum, C. Larman and B.Vodde,
2009 - http://www.amazon.it/Scaling-Lean-Agile-Development-Organizational-ebook/dp/B001PBSDIE/
• [video] Scrum doesn’t work in China?, BassVodde - http://www.infoq.com/cn/presentations/bas_scrum_china
• [paper] Software development as a cooperative game, A. Cockburn, http://alistair.cockburn.us/Software+development+as+a
+cooperative+game
• [podcast] The Collaboration Superpowers Podcast, AAVV, curated by L. Sutherland - iTunes store
• [webinar] Jan, 27th, 2015 - 7 tips for improving your geographically distributed team, Johanna Rothman - http://bit.do/webinar27

38. SEEYOU AROUND?
• [conf] Codemotion - 23 & 24 March, Rome - “Is Kanban better than Scrum?
(next question, please)”
• [camp] Agile Coach Camp, sometime in June, probably inTrentino
• [conf] Italian Agile Days, 6 & 7 November, Brescia
• [conf] Better Software - 15 & 16 November, Florence - “Managing learning debt”
• [online] xp-it mailing list
• [online] Lean Agile Italy Group on Linkedin
• [online + offline ] WebDeBS group on Facebook, #brainpirlo events IRL

39. Thanks!
Enjoy the rest of #TechDay :-)
Feedback: http://bit.do/meglio
Ping me: @carloz