Presented by
Date
Event
Extreme AgileManaging fully distributed teams
June 2015Alan Bennett
6/12/2015
Agile Development Conference BSC/ADC2015
● a truly unique opportunity● I could work anywhere● Manage / Lead multiple teams● Grow from a Global talent pool
● Diverse background● Delivered ‘Full-stack’
○ Consumer electronics○ Military/Aviation: DO-178B
● Lots of process experience○ Phase Gate, Waterfall and
Agile/Scrum● Open Source & Automation
How hard can it be
Walkthru the Organization
● Directed engineering● Competitors collaborating● Opensource SW on ARM processors● Linux Kernel, GNU Toolchain, Core developers● Organizationally ‘Flat’● Periods of High growth● Fully-transparent operations to stakeholders
How do I fit in
● Engineering Manager 3 teams○ Team 1: Automation framework (6)○ Team 2: Automation System Administration (2)○ Team 3: Infrastructure (4)
● Structure○ 75% Full-time employees○ 25% Member employees / ‘assignees’
Manage using Agile Scrum
● Company wide cadence: 1 month cycles● ‘Way of Working’ based on Agile / Scrum● Feature level planning, scoping, “hard
commitments”● Regular Ceremonies
○ Planning, retrospectives, demosbug scrubs, standups
● Next up Execute
Scrum, its great, but...
● Scheduling meetings○ It’s 5 o’clock somewhere
● Team Dynamics○ Specialists, differing goals
● BattlingBurnout○ starting days at 5am, meetings until 9am
Low hanging fruit
● Find ‘least painful’ time● Split / team
○ focused○ lose ‘cross-over’ benefits
● Results○ Able to keep the team moving○ Focusing on cross team dependencies
● Things are more-or-less working
Re-organization
● More responsibility● Resources shuffle
○ lose some, gain others● Product Development
○ My comfort zone○ Building products (Linux Kernel, Toolchain,
Automation Product)● Share management with reporting Manager
New signs of trouble
● Hair begins to turn gray● Less time to focus● New products under
scrutiny, escalations● Battling high priority
interrupts
Thankfully, high quality ingredients
● Opensource works○ Passion drives contribution○ Resources are volunteers,
■ un-managed■ self-motivated■ self-planning
● Company values team dynamics○ semi-annual meetings, sprints, conferences
● Have a great team of driven engineers
Inputs
● Driven Engineers ○ Open source contributions
● Leverage tools that promote visibility○ Kanban, ordered by priority
■ Priority from team & stakeholders● Autonomous; The team has to ‘own’ the problem
○ Individuals have to be able to add work items■ assigned and ‘unassigned’
Inputs, cont...
● Ceremonies that work for us○ Design Discussions
■ 30-90 minutes, weekly■ Hangouts / Email thread / reviews■ #IRC discussions
○ Quarterly focus meetings / sprints● External Priorities (aka distractions)
○ “managed” incoming & outgoing i.e. Product Owner / Engineering Manager
○ Transparent, but protect focus / “Flow”