These are the slides for my closing keynote at Codemotion Rome 2017. About elephants in the software development room.

1. Chasing Elephants
@ziobrando

2. About me
• Coding since 1982
• … but that’s not what I get
paid for
• #DDDesign #Agile #Lean
#Complexity
• I invented
• I smell

3. Disclaimer
• This talk will be a collection of
obviousness and inconvenient truth
• … something like a pub rant,
• … or maybe I do have a plan.

4. My first elephant

5. Long long time ago…

6. Long long time ago…
• Customer: “we need a new architecture!”

7. Long long time ago…
• Customer: “we need a new architecture!”
• Me: “A good architecture won’t save you!
You have a bigger problem than that…”

8. Long long time ago…
• Customer: “we need a new architecture!”
• Me: “A good architecture won’t save you!
You have a bigger problem than that…”
• Customer: “That is not what you’re hired
for: you’re an architect!”

9. Long long time ago…
• Customer: “we need a new architecture!”
• Me: “A good architecture won’t save you!
You have a bigger problem than that…”
• Customer: “That is not what you’re hired
for: you’re an architect!”

11. Especially if they are in the way between you and the solution
Labels are Crap

12. … or that was what i thought
We’re just problem
solvers with a
common goal

13. Saying NO is always
an option

14. Accelerated growth

15. Phase one: Inception

16. Phase one: Inception
• team Building (whatever that means)

17. Phase one: Inception
• team Building (whatever that means)
• Pile up features in any possible way

18. Phase one: Inception
• team Building (whatever that means)
• Pile up features in any possible way
#Purpose

19. Phase one: Inception
• team Building (whatever that means)
• Pile up features in any possible way
#energy #Purpose

20. Phase one: Inception
• team Building (whatever that means)
• Pile up features in any possible way
#energy #Purpose #FUN

21. Phase two: Ramp up

22. Phase two: Ramp up
• Money pouring in

23. Phase two: Ramp up
• Money pouring in
• Hiring frenzy

24. Phase two: Ramp up
• Money pouring in
• Hiring frenzy
• Massive recruitment schema

25. Phase two: Ramp up
• Money pouring in
• Hiring frenzy
• Massive recruitment schema
• Externalise recruiting

26. Phase two: Ramp up
• Money pouring in
• Hiring frenzy
• Massive recruitment schema
• Externalise recruiting
• More people

27. Phase two: Ramp up
• Money pouring in
• Hiring frenzy
• Massive recruitment schema
• Externalise recruiting
• More people
• Interruptions / meetings / bugs

28. Phase two: Ramp up
• Money pouring in
• Hiring frenzy
• Massive recruitment schema
• Externalise recruiting
• More people
• Interruptions / meetings / bugs
#energy

29. “we hired random
dudes and the
results were
amazing!!!”

30. no one ever
“we hired random
dudes and the
results were
amazing!!!”

31. Phase Three: Outsourcing

32. Phase Three: Outsourcing
• Internal devs turned into supervisors

33. Phase Three: Outsourcing
• Internal devs turned into supervisors
• From doing

34. Phase Three: Outsourcing
• Internal devs turned into supervisors
• From doing
• To controlling

35. Phase Three: Outsourcing
• Internal devs turned into supervisors
• From doing
• To controlling
• To fixing

36. Phase Three: Outsourcing
• Internal devs turned into supervisors
• From doing
• To controlling
• To fixing
#Scaling

37. Phase Three: Outsourcing
• Internal devs turned into supervisors
• From doing
• To controlling
• To fixing
#Scaling #Bureaucracy

38. Phase Three: Outsourcing
• Internal devs turned into supervisors
• From doing
• To controlling
• To fixing
#Scaling #Bureaucracy #Boredom

40. an inconvenient truth
Bad developers
code
Good developers
cleanup

41. Sure! Cleaning up your
dishes has always been my
secret goal.

42. Phase Four: The aftermath
• Welcome to Legacyland!!!
• quite a few good devs leave
#Ouch

43. More or less…
Good
developers
mostly
cleaning
Good
developers
will leave
Massive hire
of external
contractors Internal
developers
need to
coordinate
externals
No time for
coding for
internal devs
Economic
Opportunity
Enough budget
Bad code will
stay
Increased
amount of
crappy code
?

44. How can it be
possible?

46. Being richer doesn’t
make you right

47. What happens when you
google “software
developer” for images?

49. Slacking off

50. Slacking off
gears?

51. clueless dude in
the middle
Slacking off
gears?

52. clueless dude in
the middle
Slacking off
gears?
xactly!!

53. clueless dude in
the middle
Slacking off
gears?
Watching porn
xactly!!

54. clueless dude in
the middle
Slacking off
gears?
Watching porn
My man!
xactly!!

55. Typical developer
“I think in 0 and 1, then I
mind transmit it
straight to my computer
screen”

57. There’s a
blind spot

59. Many companies have
never seen a real
senior developer

60. Many companies have
never seen a real
senior developer
…and probably never
will

61. “We want to reward
individual
productivity!”

62. “We want to reward
individual
productivity!”

63. “We want to reward
individual
productivity!”

64. “We want to reward
individual
productivity!”

65. The Cheaper Talent
Hypothesis
Courtesy of Martin Fowler (2008)

67. Salary elephant

68. Salary elephant
• A good developer could be significantly
more effective than a bad one

69. Salary elephant
• A good developer could be significantly
more effective than a bad one
• up to an order of magnitude more,

70. Salary elephant
• A good developer could be significantly
more effective than a bad one
• up to an order of magnitude more,
• not to mention negative productivity

71. Salary elephant
• A good developer could be significantly
more effective than a bad one
• up to an order of magnitude more,
• not to mention negative productivity
• Salary won’t grow in proportion

72. What would you do?

74. Entangled problems
• Seniors are more expensive … but also
more risky!
• Can’t recognise a good senior

75. “Years of experience”
don’t make
seniority

76. Let’s hire juniors instead!

77. The Junior Elephant

78. The “young promise” scenario

79. The “young promise” scenario
1. Hire cheap juniors … one will shine!

80. The “young promise” scenario
1. Hire cheap juniors … one will shine!
2. Provide them training…

81. The “young promise” scenario
1. Hire cheap juniors … one will shine!
2. Provide them training…
3. No, Step 2 was a joke! :-)

82. Hire cheap
+ Add Pressure

83. Hire cheap
+ Add Pressure
???

84. What happens when…
The gifted one discovers he/She’s good?

85. Even if you were
lucky, the chances
you’ll be able to
retain a gifted one,
are really low.

86. And bribing won’t work

87. Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose
https://vimeo.com/15488784
…a good model?

88. The talented elephant

89. Where do the talented
go?

90. good developers go
where good
developers are

91. –Johnny Appleseed
“Type a quote here.”

92. good developers go
where they can
learn something

93. good developers go
where there some
good stuff to do

94. “Software
development is a
learning process
Working code is a
side effect”

95. Good Software
developers are
compulsive
learners

97. They’ll leave when
there’s no
learning left.

98. The elephant in the
middle of the road

99. Development team
• It’s not supposed to talk with the users
• It’s not supposed to talk with the real
experts
• It’s not supposed to talk with the real
customer

100. How the hell are we
supposed to learn?

101. But there’s something worse than
that

102. Purpose is lost

105. I am a Craftsman!

106. I am a Craftsman! I am the Product Owner

107. I am a Craftsman! I am the Product Owner
I am a Senior Architect!

108. I am a Craftsman! I am the Product Owner
I am a Senior Architect!
I am the boss!

109. –Johnny Appleseed
“Type a quote here.”

110. Long time ago

111. Long time ago
• Surveyed a huge codebase:

112. Long time ago
• Surveyed a huge codebase:
• 500 k lines of code

113. Long time ago
• Surveyed a huge codebase:
• 500 k lines of code
• Obsolete technology

114. Long time ago
• Surveyed a huge codebase:
• 500 k lines of code
• Obsolete technology
• Oscillating between useless and poisonous

115. Long time ago
• Surveyed a huge codebase:
• 500 k lines of code
• Obsolete technology
• Oscillating between useless and poisonous
• Strong political backing to “revive” the project

116. Long time ago
• Surveyed a huge codebase:
• 500 k lines of code
• Obsolete technology
• Oscillating between useless and poisonous
• Strong political backing to “revive” the project
• Negligible user base.

118. No purpose
(again)

119. and no regrets!
Goodbye!

120. No joy in writing, damn hard to remove and change
Software without a purpose is
poisonous

121. Not much time ago

122. Not much time ago
• Cool startup

123. Not much time ago
• Cool startup
• Tons of money

124. Not much time ago
• Cool startup
• Tons of money
• Cool technology

125. Not much time ago
• Cool startup
• Tons of money
• Cool technology
• Not so clear purpose …They must be right!

126. No purpose
(again)

127. Symptoms
• Feature creep
• lots of unproven hypothesis

128. Takeaways

129. I’ve seen many places, but the
problems are always the same

130. In 2017 software development is
still managed as a production
process…
Management advice

131. In 2017 software development is
still managed as a production
process…
IT IS NOT
Management advice

132. Management advice
Work to create an
ecosystem where
learning and delivery
are possible

133. Learn!
Practice!
Experiment!
Developers advice
Be Safe, Fail, retry

134. Stop writing
purposeless
software
Developers advice

135. 1. Find your real users
2. make them happy
3. repeat

136. Chase your elephants…

137. …Or they’ll chase you

138. Thank you!

139. Game Changers