strategies for building, managing, and scaling technology teams
TRANSCRIPT
Strategies for building, managing, and rapidly scaling technology teams. !Real-world examples of building, managing, and rapidly scaling centralized and distributed dev, test, and ops teams.
Peter White about.me/pwhite [email protected] linkedin.com/in/peterwhite2
Speaker BioI'm a software development leader with 20+ years of experience; over half in “hands-on” management positions. I've held executive positions at small and mid-sized companies, built several successful engineering teams from scratch, and led engineering teams at three companies through acquisitions. I've been responsible for hiring, mentoring, employee retention, and partner/vendor management in all of these positions.
As the Director of Quality Engineering at Box (mid-2010 - mid-2012), I built the "Tools and Frameworks" team from scratch and scaled my combined (dev + test) organization size by 3x.
Most recently, as Head of Engineering at Servio, I assumed responsibility for engineering, technical operations, and IT; and represented these functions and systems through all technology-related aspects of CrowdSource's acquisition of Servio. This included bootstrapping an offshore DevOps team to ensure continuity of service through the final platform migration to CrowdSource and sunsetting Servio’s “CloudCrowd” platform on the first of last month.
Peter White
Case StudiesRapidly Scaling a Development Org
Offshoring QA - Hybrid Model
Crowdsourcing Mobile QA
Keeping the Ship Afloat w/Offshore DevOps
Test Automation Adoption
Themes for SuccessExpectation setting
Planning
Process
Communication - Skype, Google Hangout, IM, etc
Infrastructure and tooling
Minimizing SPOFs and bottlenecks
Output is a function of input
Offshore Team BuildingHand-pick YOUR team
Resumes are often an insufficient indicator of success
Standardize interview process and communicate with vendor
Provide feedback to vendor and iterate quickly
Communication and morale
Churn - under-performers and shadow staff
Quick Interest SurveyHow many front-line engineers (dev,test,IT) in the audience?
How many managers (personnel & project) in the audience?
Single-site vs. Distributed (including offshoring & outsourcing)
Starting vs. Maintaining vs. Scaling
Dev vs. Test vs. Ops
Offshoring ProsPeace of mind*
Flexible workforce
Allows you leverage for growth
Access to unavailable resources
Reduced costs*
Offshoring ConsLack of preparation - requires additional time, effort, and structure for success
Often unrealistic expectations about bottom line cost savings* and productivity (talent availability, ramp-up, communication lag)
Lifestyle/work-life-balance
Morale
* See “Cost Savings: Expectations Versus Reality” excerpt at http://pragprog.com/book/nkout/outsource-it
Case Studies
Rapidly Scaling a Development OrgOften, projects and organizations aren’t prepared to rapidly absorb more team members. Doing so requires additional:
Planning
Process
Infrastructure and tooling
Choke points
Offshoring QA - Hybrid ModelInitial pain points
Process and tooling
Continuous improvement
Crowdsourcing Mobile QAFlexibility
Cost effectiveness
Trade-offs
Keeping the Ship Afloat w/Offshore DevOpsI needed to augment production support staff yesterday!
Staffing challenges…
Environment challenges…
Lessons learned
Test Automation AdoptionRequires support from the top
Tooling
Evangelism
Education
Enforcement
Additional ResourcesRecommended Reading • Outsource It! (Nick Krym) • Managing without Walls (Garton & Wegryn) !
http://peter-white.info/category/presentations/
