Podcast #31: Joseph Moore of Pivotal Labs

In this episode I talk to Joseph Moore of Pivotal Labs. We talk about the challenges of moving from a collocated team to being a “satellite team member” thousands of miles away. What’s especially interesting about Joseph’s story is that he still pair-programs all day, every day with other members of his team despite being remote.

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 Show Notes:

00:55 - Introduce Joe

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• Software Developer
• Moved from San Francisco to Atlanta and continued working for Pivotal remotely

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01:41 – Interview begins

 01:58 – Joe’s background

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04:50 – Pair Programming

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• Two developers sitting side by side at one computer, working on the same problem together
• Slower, but teams produce code that is higher quality, fewer defects, better design, etc.
• Quickly & easily make changes

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06:55 – Pair Programming 100% of the time while remote

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• Same standard equipment (iMac)

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09:10 – Patience and Social Skills while Pairing

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• Be a good listener
• Not let ego and opinions take too much precedence
• Have an open mind
• Arrive at solutions together
• Patience with finicky technology
• Video face time is important
• Being disciplined with distractions
• Take breaks (naturally)

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13:55 – Keyboard back & forth sharing

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• 100% access vs watching and critiquing
•  Etiquette and cues
•  Latency
•  Free up CPU by using multiple machines

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23:08 – Daily Pair Swapping

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• Change who you’re working with
• Make sure everybody is aware of everyone involved in a project
• People are introduced to many other ideas and opinions

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25:09 – Going from co located to remote (Joe’s experience)

27:18 – Daily Standups

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• Discuss standing up versus sitting down
• Avoiding distraction during daily standups
• Look at what has been done and what goals are for that day

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32:01 – Daily check-ins with clients

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• Ensures everything is moving smoothly, have priorities changed, and verify work that has been done

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33:56 - Social impact of going from co located to remote

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• If you can make occasional physical visits, do it

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36:40 - Advice for remote workers

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• Discipline
• Patience with technology and others

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38:17 – Type of person who can be successful at remote work

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• 50% patience
• 50% skill

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39:40 – How much of a “normal” work environment can be replicated with distributed teams?

40:35 – Aspects that are superior to remote versus co located work

42:00 – Remote pair programming and coworking

43:38 – Wrap Up

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• Anyone interested in agile project tools should check out Pivotal Tracker
• Free software: Pivotal Tracker
• Pivotal Labs is a consulting company located in San Francisco, New York, Boulder, CO, and Joe in Atlanta
• Twitter @joem
• Blog: 40withegg

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