#atlassian

Matt Ryal l • Head of Engineering, Confluence • Atlassian • @mryal l

Nailing Distributed Development:Effective collaboration in distributed teams

Individuals and interactions over

process and tools

– Manifesto for Agile Software Development

Jean-Michel Lemieux (“JML”) VP of Engineering

Jean-Michel Lemieux (“JML”) VP of Engineering

JML

JML

We need to start a new development office in Asia. !

How about we kick it off with Confluence?

JML

JML

We need to start a new development office in Asia. !

How about we kick it off with Confluence?

JML

We need to start a new development office in Asia. !

How about we kick it off with Confluence?

Matt

JML

No worries, mate!

We need to start a new development office in Asia. !

How about we kick it off with Confluence?

Matt

JML

Matt

JML

What will they work on? What if we can’t communicate? What if their code is bad?

Matt

8½ hrs

3-4 hrs

1. Meet your team.

Clearly separate.

Clearly separate. Minimal learning curve.

Clearly separate. Minimal learning curve.

Important but not critical.

A six-month mission

A six-month mission

A six-month mission

2. Share your plan and your values.

Spec

Spec

ConfluenceCollaboration Central

• Knowledge sharing & collaboration for your team!

• Write documents, share them!

• Best online editing experience

Create-share-discover cycle

Create-share-discover cycle Recent releases

• Confluence 4.0 – new WYSIWYG editor, macro placeholders, Share button!

• Confluence 4.1 – page layouts!

• Confluence 4.2 – WYSIWYG templates!

• Confluence 4.3 – mobile UI, “Like” button, popular content, in-page notifications

Confluence 2013 goals

• Lustworthy – beautiful and easy to use!

• Onboarding – easy to get started!

• Enterprise – robustness & scalability

Confluence 2013 goals

• Insert diagram here

Confluence 5.0

• Redesigned with Atlassian Design Guidelines (ADG)!• New header, integrated app switcher!

• New typography, colours, icons!

• Space navigation sidebar!

• Create experience!

• Enterprise user management improvements

Confluence 5.0

Sidebar navigation

New header

New typography, icons, etc.

Atlassian Engineering Values!

How does build software?!

3

DELIVER CUSTOMER VALUE

The Prime Directive:

Congrats - you were picked out of 72 companies!!• Pilot project. A developer gave the demo and a good heated

discussion with the team.!• Company values and delivery focus!• Ability to scale with Atlassian and think big!• Vietnam education and hard working culture (albeit language

is still a challenge given how quickly we collaborate)!• Design agency and eye for design and user experience!

!

• Challenges: English, products that last for ever, including all our teams in the Atlassian culture.

4

What’s made successful?!

What’s made successful?

1.Software development is changing!

2.Business model innovation!

3.Long-term thinking

Where is heading?!

Where is heading?

1.Every company is a software company!

2.Beyond the dev team!i. “every knowledge worker using Atlassian every day”!

3.“Your margin is our opportunity”i. Ubiquitous

in 2014!

Engagement model

Prod Mgr

Existing team

New, remote team

Design & UX

Dev Mgr

Dev

TL

Dev

Dev

BA

Dev foundation

Dev Mgr

expanding core dev capability, bug fixing, feature team

Engagement model

Prod Mgr

Existing team

New, remote team

Design & UX

Dev Mgr

Dev

TL

Dev

Dev

BA

Dev foundation

Dev Mgr

expanding core dev capability, bug fixing, feature team

Product decisions

Dev

TL

Dev

Dev

Prod Mgr

Dev Mgr

Design

ProdMgr

UX

DevMgr

process in place, making product decisions more independently

Engagement model

Prod Mgr

Existing team

New, remote team

Design & UX

Dev Mgr

Dev

TL

Dev

Dev

BA

Dev foundation

Dev Mgr

expanding core dev capability, bug fixing, feature team

Product decisions

Dev

TL

Dev

Dev

Prod Mgr

Dev Mgr

Design

ProdMgr

UX

DevMgr

process in place, making product decisions more independently

Autonomous

Dev

TL

Dev

Dev

Prod Mgr

Dev Mgr

Design & UX

owns execution against strategy for their own features/products

3. Frequent face-to-face contact at all levels.

Frequent catchups

How often to meet? At least once per week.

I’ve used Hipchat screen sharing to pair with Matej in Amsterdam on a plugin issue. We were writing SQL together, etc. ”

“

Exchange program

Exchange program

Exchange program

Exchange program

Exchange program

4. Communicate asynchronously.

HipChat is our logbook

Incident conference calls must die.

!

Use HipChat instead.

Chapter Title Here

Promote lurking

It wasn’t all smooth sailing…

Bug!

Dynamic vs static

Dynamic vs static

Less this

Dynamic vs static

Less this More this

Can you guys please switch the JIRA Issues Macro from dynamic to static by default?

Can you guys please switch the JIRA Issues Macro from dynamic to static by default?

Sure thing!

More bugs!

5. Track decisions.

6. Reinforce the culture you want.

#atlassian

7. Be overly inclusive.

ShipIt competitions

Coordinated parties

Coordinated parties

Saigon Golf Day

Coordinated parties

Sydney Treasure HuntSaigon Golf Day

All hands presentations

8. Measure for success.

Goals Survey

FeedbackActions

Staff surveys

9. Help the team find their own identity.

Blue shirt day

Key takeaways: #atlassian

1. Meet the team2. Share your plan and your values3. Frequent face-to-face contact at all levels4. Communicate asynchronously5. Track Decisions6. Reinforce the culture you want7. Be overly inclusive8. Measure for success9. Help the team find their own identity

Questions?

Matt Ryal l • Head of Engineering, Confluence • Atlassian • @mryal l

Thank you!

Image credits

• Slide 3: http://www.physipak.com.au• Slide 4: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kheelcenter/5279325617/• Slide 5: http://agilemanifesto.org• Slides 7, 9: Atlassian• Slide 11: Google Maps• Slides 13, 14, 24, 29, 30: Atlassian• Slide 31: http://1slowhiker.blogspot.com.au/• Slide 43: Google Maps• Slides 49, 51, 53, 54, 62, 64: Atlassian