Distributed teams put additional strains on what is fundamentally a communication and collaboration challenge in building software. Matt Ryall, senior development manager for Confluence, shares his experience on how Atlassian and several of our clients are using collaboration tools like Confluence and HipChat to help overcome geographic boundaries, and ship great software on time.

1. #atlassian

2. Nailing Distributed Development:
Effective collaboration in distributed teams
Matt Ryall • Head of Engineering, Confluence • Atlassian • @mryall

6. Individuals and interactions
over
process and tools
– Manifesto for Agile Software Development

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

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

9. JML

10. We need to start a new
development office in Asia.
!
How about we kick it off
with Confluence?
JML

11. JML
We need to start a new
development office in Asia.
!
How about we kick it off
with Confluence?

12. JML
We need to start a new
development office in Asia.
!
How about we kick it off
with Confluence?
Matt

13. JML
We need to start a new
development office in Asia.
!
How about we kick it off
with Confluence?
No worries, mate!
Matt

14. JML
Matt

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

16. 8½ hrs
3-4 hrs

17. 1. Meet your team.

21. Clearly separate.

22. Clearly separate.
Minimal learning curve.

23. Clearly separate.
Minimal learning curve.
Important but not critical.

24. A six-month mission

25. A six-month mission

26. A six-month mission

27. 2. Share your plan
and your values.

28. Spec

29. Spec

30. Confluence
Collaboration 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.

31. Atlassian Engineering Values!
How does build software?!
3
The Prime Directive:
DELIVER CUSTOMER VALUE
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!

32. Engagement model
Dev foundation
expanding core dev capability,
bug fixing, feature team
Prod
Mgr
Existing team
New, remote
team
Design
& UX
Dev
Mgr
Dev
TL
Dev
Dev
BA
Dev
Mgr

33. Engagement model
Dev foundation
expanding core dev capability,
bug fixing, feature team
Prod
Mgr
Existing team
New, remote
team
Design
& UX
Dev
Mgr
Dev
TL
Dev
Dev
BA
Dev
Mgr
Product decisions
process in place, making product
decisions more independently
Dev
TL
Dev
Dev
Prod
Mgr
Prod
Mgr
Dev
Mgr
Design
UX
Dev
Mgr

34. Engagement model
Dev foundation
expanding core dev capability,
bug fixing, feature team
Prod
Mgr
Existing team
New, remote
team
Design
& UX
Dev
Mgr
Dev
TL
Dev
Dev
BA
Dev
Mgr
Product decisions
process in place, making product
decisions more independently
Dev
TL
Dev
Dev
Prod
Mgr
Prod
Mgr
Dev
Mgr
Design
UX
Dev
Mgr
Autonomous
owns execution against strategy
for their own features/products
Prod
Mgr
TL
Dev
Dev
Dev
Dev
Mgr
Design
& UX

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

39. Frequent catchups

40. How often to meet?
At least once per week.

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

43. Exchange program

44. Exchange program

45. Exchange program

46. Exchange program

47. Exchange program

50. 4. Communicate
asynchronously.

51. HipChat is our logbook

53. Incident conference
calls must die.
!
Use HipChat instead.

55. Chapter Title Here

56. Promote lurking

58. It wasn’t all smooth sailing…

60. Bug!

61. Dynamic vs static

62. Dynamic vs static
Less this

63. Dynamic vs static
Less this
More this

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

66. Can you guys please switch
the JIRA Issues Macro from
dynamic to static by default?
Sure thing!

67. More bugs!

68. 5. Track decisions.

71. 6. Reinforce the
culture you want.

72. #atlassian

73. 7. Be overly inclusive.

74. ShipIt competitions

77. Coordinated parties

78. Coordinated parties
Saigon Golf Day

79. Coordinated parties
Saigon Golf Day Sydney Treasure Hunt

80. All hands presentations

81. 8. Measure for success.

82. Goals Survey
Actions Feedback

84. Staff surveys

85. 9. Help the team find
their own identity.

89. Blue shirt day

90. Key takeaways: #atlassian
1. Meet the team
2. Share your plan and your values
3. Frequent face-to-face contact at all levels
4. Communicate asynchronously
5. Track Decisions
6. Reinforce the culture you want
7. Be overly inclusive
8. Measure for success
9. Help the team find their own identity

91. Questions?

92. Thank you!
Matt Ryall • Head of Engineering, Confluence • Atlassian • @mryall

93. 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