Episode #43: Greg Bell of Reverb Software

Aug 1, 12 • In Featured, Interviews, Podcast

In this episode, Greg Bell, of Reverb Software, talks about mistakes he made during the early stages of managing a distributed team and what he’s done to combat those mistakes, and the ideal people that make up a widely distributed team.

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Show Notes:

Twitter: @gregbell
REVERB Software
Greg Bell Design + Development
github/gregbell
Ruby Open Source Challenge

00:44 – Greg Bell Introduction and Background

Based in Vancouver, Canada
Reverb has 6 staff members distributed around the world: France and Vancouver
Shared office space that can be utilized

02:05 – Type of software worked on

Rails applications in medical and pharmaceutical enterprise spaces

03:00 – History with distributed teams

First experiences weren’t so good
Inherited distributed developers

05:20 – What went wrong at first?

Good technology wasn’t in place to allowl continuous communication
No IRC or Hip Chat
No daily standups
Language barrier
Time zone alignment

08:30 – Plans to avoid future mistakes while managing a distributed team

Try to get people in the same room as much as possible
Face time
Keep the team connected
Having the right people

09:45 – Ideal people

Enjoy writing down what they are doing
Documenting thoughts
Making it obvious what they are up to
Detail tickets

11:20 – A day in the life

Daily standup over Google Hangouts
Additional conversations between teams
HipChat all day

13:14 – HipChat

Easy to use
Integrated one-on-one video chat
More private than Skype

15:10 – Division of work between people in Vancouver and people in France

Everyone works on projects together
Meeting with clients is harder for those located in France
Iteration planning

18:42 – Being stalled during work due to others being unavailable

Always have multiple independent tasks you could be working on
Changing how you orient standups

23:00 – Connecting with clients

Tracking conversations
Taking meeting notes
Side conversations with clients can give a lot of context

25:08 – Dealing with young members of teams

Training/programs for young developers out of college
Remote pair programming

29:05 – Number one piece of advice for someone getting into distributed work

Show progress

distributed teams Interviews podcasts remote work

About the Author: Avdi Grimm

Husband, father, software cultivator, and amateur community builder, Avdi has been leading and participating in dispersed software development teams since 2007. He works from home in Southern Pennsylvania, and loves the fact that working remotely enables him to spend more time with his wife and four children.