Distributed SW development - Some advice please ...
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I've just learned from my boss that I'm gonna get two new SW engineers to my team. I thought it was great, until I found out they're contractors from a foreign country. Its not that I don't want my team to grow, only I never had any experience with managing people overseas and developing SW in a distributed manner. There are so many technical difficulties I can think of such as how to manage a common repository or how to conduct peer reviews, not mentioning mentality differences. So if any of you have any experience with these sorts if issues I'll appreciate your advice.:confused:
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I've just learned from my boss that I'm gonna get two new SW engineers to my team. I thought it was great, until I found out they're contractors from a foreign country. Its not that I don't want my team to grow, only I never had any experience with managing people overseas and developing SW in a distributed manner. There are so many technical difficulties I can think of such as how to manage a common repository or how to conduct peer reviews, not mentioning mentality differences. So if any of you have any experience with these sorts if issues I'll appreciate your advice.:confused:
Omer S. wrote: how to manage a common repository Well, that one is simple - let CVS manage that. See: CVS server for NT CVS server for *nix GUI client for Win/Mac/Linux
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Omer S. wrote: how to manage a common repository Well, that one is simple - let CVS manage that. See: CVS server for NT CVS server for *nix GUI client for Win/Mac/Linux
I wish it was that simple. We're already using Rational's ClearCase for Software configuration management, but I guess that's an issue our IT guys will solve. What really worries me is how to work with those people. Here I can go to any member of my team when ever he needs assistance or when ever I need to make complicated things clear, but doing this with someone who's sitting 3,000 miles away - that's a different thing.
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I wish it was that simple. We're already using Rational's ClearCase for Software configuration management, but I guess that's an issue our IT guys will solve. What really worries me is how to work with those people. Here I can go to any member of my team when ever he needs assistance or when ever I need to make complicated things clear, but doing this with someone who's sitting 3,000 miles away - that's a different thing.
Well, if your company can afford Rational's ClearCase then you should not have the problem to phone them as it seems that the cost is not an issue ;) Eventually you can always use chat like Yahoo or MSN Messanger and email. We are working here with couple of folks 1774 miles away and it's quite alright with just phone and email. And yes, you will have to start to put the complicated thing in writings. But in the long run it might be a good thing actually... Good Luck!
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I wish it was that simple. We're already using Rational's ClearCase for Software configuration management, but I guess that's an issue our IT guys will solve. What really worries me is how to work with those people. Here I can go to any member of my team when ever he needs assistance or when ever I need to make complicated things clear, but doing this with someone who's sitting 3,000 miles away - that's a different thing.
G'day Omer S, I work from home and rarely venture into the city office of my clients so I can speak about the sorts of things that do work. Look carefully at what you do have and you should be able to use it effectively. Firstly assuming these two are together they should be able to peer review each others work. You need to give them some simple documented coding standards if you don't use them already. Once your project has a clear plan (which they can't help with while remote) you should be able to define sub-units you can hand to them to implement. They can be very useful testers, particularly with a distrubuted app. You need to be able to provide a flow of work to keep them busy, always have more than one thing ready for them to work on, when one task stalls waiting on your feedback they can continue with the other. They will be shielded from the politics of the central project so be carefull about what you assume they know. (specifications/priorities often shift during the project which your remote people may miss being updated about) If you have language difficulties keep all technical discussions written rather than spoken. I use and recommend CVS. Hope this helps a little. Regards, Robert. sonork ID: 100.9940
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I wish it was that simple. We're already using Rational's ClearCase for Software configuration management, but I guess that's an issue our IT guys will solve. What really worries me is how to work with those people. Here I can go to any member of my team when ever he needs assistance or when ever I need to make complicated things clear, but doing this with someone who's sitting 3,000 miles away - that's a different thing.
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I've just learned from my boss that I'm gonna get two new SW engineers to my team. I thought it was great, until I found out they're contractors from a foreign country. Its not that I don't want my team to grow, only I never had any experience with managing people overseas and developing SW in a distributed manner. There are so many technical difficulties I can think of such as how to manage a common repository or how to conduct peer reviews, not mentioning mentality differences. So if any of you have any experience with these sorts if issues I'll appreciate your advice.:confused:
Omer, The company I work at has been doing distributed development for quite a while, and pretty effectively. We use Clearcase for code management, and NetMeeting and conference calling for communication. We use in-house bug tracking and document publishing packages. We have significant IT resources at our disposal, which makes this kind of thing possible. It's probably a good idea to raise a red flag to your manager to ensure that expectations are properly set. I think it would be difficult to manage distributed development without a solid infrastructure, unless you were working with people you've known for a while. /ravi "There is always one more bug..." ravib@ravib.com http://www.ravib.com
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I wish it was that simple. We're already using Rational's ClearCase for Software configuration management, but I guess that's an issue our IT guys will solve. What really worries me is how to work with those people. Here I can go to any member of my team when ever he needs assistance or when ever I need to make complicated things clear, but doing this with someone who's sitting 3,000 miles away - that's a different thing.
Our structure: Here we have some programmers that don't show up at office for months. They are in the same city, but since they are not in our office, it doesn't matter whether they are 3 or 3000 miles. To integrate people we make heavy use of ICQ, VPN and Exchange 2000 colab. features, e.g. Shared Folders for dev. tasks and OWA. CVS server is on Linux, because I always fear software ports; CVSWeb for CVS repository browsing; automated builds; dedicated automated build machines; and centralized support people. ADSL here is good & cheap, so is a must-have. Also, we have roaming developers, like me: I develop both at home and at office, and this helps me to understand problems they have. In supporting our dev. staff that's in trouble, I think that nothing beats VNC + ICQ. Please anyone, don't start a flame about cvs x vss; linux x win2k, icq x sonork, vnc x pcanywhere: it's the software that we chose, not the best software in the world. Crivo Automated Credit Assessment
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Our structure: Here we have some programmers that don't show up at office for months. They are in the same city, but since they are not in our office, it doesn't matter whether they are 3 or 3000 miles. To integrate people we make heavy use of ICQ, VPN and Exchange 2000 colab. features, e.g. Shared Folders for dev. tasks and OWA. CVS server is on Linux, because I always fear software ports; CVSWeb for CVS repository browsing; automated builds; dedicated automated build machines; and centralized support people. ADSL here is good & cheap, so is a must-have. Also, we have roaming developers, like me: I develop both at home and at office, and this helps me to understand problems they have. In supporting our dev. staff that's in trouble, I think that nothing beats VNC + ICQ. Please anyone, don't start a flame about cvs x vss; linux x win2k, icq x sonork, vnc x pcanywhere: it's the software that we chose, not the best software in the world. Crivo Automated Credit Assessment
It's similar to my struct. I work for two companys in USA from Argentina, I work at home and office. For the first one, a big bank, I use MSN Messenger, ICQ, PVCS, and VNC and conferences. I used the same struct for the second company, a game company, We are using MSN Messenger, But I am the technical leader, the people send me the code by email, I test the code and fix it.... Best Regards Carlos Antollini. Sonork ID 100.10529 cantollini
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Our structure: Here we have some programmers that don't show up at office for months. They are in the same city, but since they are not in our office, it doesn't matter whether they are 3 or 3000 miles. To integrate people we make heavy use of ICQ, VPN and Exchange 2000 colab. features, e.g. Shared Folders for dev. tasks and OWA. CVS server is on Linux, because I always fear software ports; CVSWeb for CVS repository browsing; automated builds; dedicated automated build machines; and centralized support people. ADSL here is good & cheap, so is a must-have. Also, we have roaming developers, like me: I develop both at home and at office, and this helps me to understand problems they have. In supporting our dev. staff that's in trouble, I think that nothing beats VNC + ICQ. Please anyone, don't start a flame about cvs x vss; linux x win2k, icq x sonork, vnc x pcanywhere: it's the software that we chose, not the best software in the world. Crivo Automated Credit Assessment
Have you tried TightVNC? It really helps across a limited bandwidth connection.
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I've just learned from my boss that I'm gonna get two new SW engineers to my team. I thought it was great, until I found out they're contractors from a foreign country. Its not that I don't want my team to grow, only I never had any experience with managing people overseas and developing SW in a distributed manner. There are so many technical difficulties I can think of such as how to manage a common repository or how to conduct peer reviews, not mentioning mentality differences. So if any of you have any experience with these sorts if issues I'll appreciate your advice.:confused:
Good communication is particularly important, you have to really make an effort. I recommend you bring the guys over for a week to meet everybody, then you have a better idea who you're talking to on the phone. I develop remotely myself and I use newsgroups a lot, i.e. I post ideas for the project on the newsgroup and that allows everybody to make comments on it. I would also like to use chat, but have never been able to convince the guys in the main office to use it.
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Have you tried TightVNC? It really helps across a limited bandwidth connection.