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Scaling an Engineering
Team
1
Neil Johnson - @neilisfragile
What am I going to talk about?
2
Culture
Organisational Structure
Technology Choices
Hiring
1.
2.
3.
4.
But really everything is about culture
3
Culture
Culture is what you reward, what you punish
and what you tolerate.
Culture is important because it is what binds the
team together and underpins every important
decision an organisation makes.
4
5
It is essential that an organisation determines
what it really values and makes choices that
support these values.
If you can’t write down what is important about
your culture, you can’t preserve it.
6
Organisational
Structure
7
Understand your culture, then find a
structure that supports it.
Not every one is Spotify
Staff your teams with the skills they need,

culture determines what is possible.
8
Define the purpose of each team.
9
Technology
Conway’s Law
10
"Any organization that designs a system (defined
broadly) will produce a design whose structure is
a copy of the organization's communication
structure."
11
With more people working on the same code base,
good communication becomes critical to manage
dependencies and ensure that the group doesn’t
grind to a halt.
Simon Brown
12
“If you can’t build a well-structured monolith,
what makes you think microservices are the
answer?“
Be certain that before you reach for Microservices
that problem is really about technology and not
about people.
13
14
Hiring
15
Culture fit is a first class citizen.
16
Create a scalable interview process.
Interviews should be structured, with a clear rubric
for each section of the interview
Interviewers need training, both on the subject
matter, but also on how to give an interview.
17
Diverse teams have better outcomes.
http://projectinclude.org/
Think consciously about culture and codify
what is important, then:
18
Arrange the organisation to reflect the culture
Make technology choices that support the culture
Design hiring processes that select on cultural
attributes as a first class citizen
1.
2.
3.
thank you
Neil Johnson - @neilisfragile
@makinglyst
https://making.lyst.com/

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Scaling an engineering team - code slinger 2017

  • 1. Scaling an Engineering Team 1 Neil Johnson - @neilisfragile
  • 2. What am I going to talk about? 2 Culture Organisational Structure Technology Choices Hiring 1. 2. 3. 4. But really everything is about culture
  • 4. Culture is what you reward, what you punish and what you tolerate. Culture is important because it is what binds the team together and underpins every important decision an organisation makes. 4
  • 5. 5 It is essential that an organisation determines what it really values and makes choices that support these values. If you can’t write down what is important about your culture, you can’t preserve it.
  • 7. 7 Understand your culture, then find a structure that supports it. Not every one is Spotify Staff your teams with the skills they need,
 culture determines what is possible.
  • 8. 8 Define the purpose of each team.
  • 10. Conway’s Law 10 "Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure."
  • 11. 11 With more people working on the same code base, good communication becomes critical to manage dependencies and ensure that the group doesn’t grind to a halt.
  • 12. Simon Brown 12 “If you can’t build a well-structured monolith, what makes you think microservices are the answer?“
  • 13. Be certain that before you reach for Microservices that problem is really about technology and not about people. 13
  • 15. 15 Culture fit is a first class citizen.
  • 16. 16 Create a scalable interview process. Interviews should be structured, with a clear rubric for each section of the interview Interviewers need training, both on the subject matter, but also on how to give an interview.
  • 17. 17 Diverse teams have better outcomes. http://projectinclude.org/
  • 18. Think consciously about culture and codify what is important, then: 18 Arrange the organisation to reflect the culture Make technology choices that support the culture Design hiring processes that select on cultural attributes as a first class citizen 1. 2. 3.
  • 19. thank you Neil Johnson - @neilisfragile @makinglyst https://making.lyst.com/