scaling (“agile”?) teams · 2018-12-11 · agile: think about who is in your stand-up or sprint...
TRANSCRIPT
December 2018
http://solvi.to/1
Scaling (“Agile”?) TeamsSolvitur Ambulando and the Circle of Trust
Carl Leubsdorf Jr.Tech / Product / Agile
Not a designer. Once a (scripting?) coder. Recovering Economist.Tiny to medium-sized startups, medium and large companies, and huge government agencies, as CTO, GM, consultant
This talk in four points1. Solvitur Ambulando2. The Circle of Trust3. Know your team goals4. Effective teams = effective technology
1. Solvitur Ambulando
(“It is solved by walking”)
1. Solvitur Ambulando
Diogenes the Cynic
Sophists: All motion is unreal
Diogenes: [Stands and walks away]
QED.
Sidebar: Latin verb forms as a source of domain (company) namesEasy to spell (for English Speakers)Relatively short.com often availableMay have actual meaning
Latin verb forms make good domain (and company) names
FuturePassiveImperative:“It Shall Be Solved”(as a command)
Solvo = “To Solve”
2. The Circle of Trust
Using “Solvitur Ambulando” to expand your team
The Motley Fool aka Fool.comFinancial publishing / adviceAttract, addict, convertAvailability, speed, functionality
Team = Trust
● Late 1990s Startup Culture
● Foosball
● Friday (and interview) beers.
● Pep-rally meetings; jester hat trivia.
● Trust your teammates - go the extra mile - benefit of the doubt - not just shirking.
The Team - Fool Early Days
Kevin (Web Dev)Keith (Content Prod)
Circleof
Trust
The Foolish Web Dev Crüe
Carl (Web Dev)Thom (Web Dev)
Other Web Devs...
Circleof
Trust
Web Dev and Content Production
ContentProduction
WebDev
Fifteen-foot corridor
Circleof
Trust
Web Server
Web Server
“Do not remove this comment”? YES!
Web Site Load Balancing - Primitive View
Web Server
The Internet Load Balancer
“Do not remove this comment”? YES!
“Do not remove this comment”? YES!
“Do not remove this comment”? No!!
Web Server
Web Server
“Do not remove this comment”? YES!
Web Site Load Balancing - Primitive View
Web Server
The Internet Load Balancer
“Do not remove this comment”? YES!
“Do not remove this comment”? YES!!!?!?!
WTH are they doing (aka WTHATD)?!?
● What you can do now: (Get up and) Go talk to them. (Solvitur Ambulando)● Does everyone know (enough of) how it all works? Is there a diagram?● Communications failure can happen a few feet or meters away, another floor or
building, another country or continent.
● Expand the circle of trust○ Frequent (daily?) interaction, face-to-face if possible○ In-person team building helps (a lot)
Web Dev and Content Production: WTH are they doing?
ContentProduction
WebDev
Fifteen-foot corridor
Circleof
Trust
Web Dev and Content Production
Circleof
Trust
ContentProduction
WebDev
2. The Circle of Trust:Solvitur Ambulando Stop WTHATD - get up and go talk
to them (or slack, facetime, ...)
Be conscious of the circle of trust - who is on “your” team?
Agile: think about who is in your daily standup or sprint review.
3. Know your team goalsMatch.com Japan = eCommerce Site
● Click, register, subscribe = ¥ ($)● Aggressive revenue target● Public Company: Hit profit goal!
○ Perception - important factor?
Quality = Safety(a theory)
the ease of setting tobacco free
● Historical dating site stigma / ‘incidents’
● No betas - polished, beautiful sites.
● Local cultural/design paramount.
● “The Menu Incident”
The Plan: Project zero defects
● Make the site beautiful
● Use a local agency for both web dev and design
● Reduce errors & fear
● Theory: Zero defects + Local design = ¥!
Match Asia Team - Initial State
Tech Team: Web Dev, QA, DB, Product
Dallas
🇺🇸
Ocean / Culture / Language
Business & Content
Production Tokyo
🇯🇵
Tokyo Design Firm
Match Asia Team - Initial State, Motivations
Revenue!Product flow!
Beautiful Design!!
Different goals
Revenue!Partnerships!
Tech Team: Web Dev, QA, DB, Product
Dallas
🇺🇸
Ocean / Culture / Language
Business & Content
Production Tokyo
🇯🇵
Tokyo Design Firm
Circleof
Trust?
Voila! New Design!
● Outcome: Nothing to show for it - conversion, registrations, subscriptions, revenue all flat.● Designers’ goal was a great design, not subscriptions or revenue. (e.g. CTAs)
十一億円 (1.1 billion ¥)
● Focus all effort on a specific goal: 十一億円
● Two day team offsite with follow-up● Add in-house designers, Beijing dev team● Switch to smaller, incremental releases
(sprints)● Evaluate based on evidence
○ A/B Testing: does it move the numbers? ○ Sprint goals tied to 十一億円 and
direct-impact KPIs, (click, reg, etc.)■ 1,000 Registrations/Day
● Celebrate (sm)all wins - shared success builds team cohesion and trust.
● Team-building (including karaoke)
Match Asia Team - One Goal
Design/ marketing
Tokyo
🇯🇵
Tech/ product Dallas
🇺🇸
Web DevBeijing
🇨🇳
十一億円
Circleof
Trust
3. Know your team goalsMake product decisions based on evidence: Solvitur Ambulando!When using an agency, make sure their goals and yours are aligned.Agile: base sprint goals on user (biz) goals. Deliver and measure every sprint.Share wins and Have fun!
Design/ marketing
Tokyo
🇯🇵
Tech/ product Dallas
🇺🇸
Web DevBeijing
🇨🇳
十一億円
Circleof
Trust
4. Effective teams = effective technology
National Institutes of Health (NIH) LoginSingle-sign on service for all NIH Applications30-50,000 users daily.Availability (uptime) and speed.Desired availability (“SLA”): 99.99%. Actual availability: 82% at worst, typically 95%.30 hour outages; frequent (weekly) slowdowns.
Sidebar: SLA, SLO, SLISLA: Service Level Agreement (what you promise)SLO: Service Level Objective (what you shoot for)SLI: Service Level Indicator (what you measure)Stated NIH Login SLO: 99.99%See: https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gcp/sre-fundamentals-slis-slas-and-sloshttps://uptime.is/
Source: https://uptime.is/four-nines
App Server
Active DirectoryDB
Login Server
Switch (Network)
BigLink
The Internet
Big
Link
Tiny
Link
Tiny
Link
Application Down, butServer “Up”
STOP
Network Congestion(slow but not “down”)
SLOW
SLOW
SLOW
Down - Server person: if I can ping it, it's up. (Wrong SLI)
Slow - Network person: I told the consultant.
Conway’s law"Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure."[1]— Melvin Conway
[1] http://www.melconway.com/Home/Conways_Law.html
Fausto de la Torre, “Applying Conway's Law to improve your software development”https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/applying-conways-law-improve-your-software-development
Conway’s law App Server
Active DirectoryDB
Login Server
Switch (Network)
BigLink
The Internet
Big
Link
Tiny
Link
Tiny
Link
"Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure."[1]— Melvin Conway
[1] http://www.melconway.com/Home/Conways_Law.html
Conway’s law
Em
ail
Server Team
EmailAD Team
Login Team
Em
ail
Network Team
Circleof
Trust
"Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure."[1]— Melvin Conway
“Because the design that occurs first is almost never the best possible, the prevailing system concept may need to change. Therefore, flexibility of organization is important to effective design.”[2]— Melvin Conway
(Cited by Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month[3])
[1] http://www.melconway.com/Home/Conways_Law.html [2] http://www.melconway.com/Home/Committees_Paper.html [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
SSO Solvers Tiger Team
Server Team
AD Team
Login Team
Network Team
99.99%
Circleof
Trust
4. Effective teams = effective technology
4. Effective teams = effective technology
4. Effective teams = effective technologySo how’d we do?Q1 2014: 99.89-99.95% uptime.
NIH Login Availability - Q1 2014
4. Effective teams = effective technology
http://status.asm.ca.com/30534/
Draw a picture!Systems mirror team communications Know your SLIs. Make them public.Agile: structure your (scrum) team based on user goals; refactor it when needed.
This talk in four points1. Solvitur Ambulando x 3: contemplate, go forth, prove it.2. Find ways to expand the Circle of Trust.
Agile: Think about who is in your stand-up or sprint review.
3. Know your goals and share them (especially w/ agencies)Agile: sprint goals = user/biz goals.
4. Effective teams = effective technologyAgile: Refactor teams when necessary
** Celebrate wins to build cohesion and trust.**
Thank You!Special Thanks to:DevJamDavid Hussman
Contact: [email protected]
Access these slides here: http://solvi.to/1 (PDF version: http://solvi.to/1-pdf)