In this episode, Josh Ballanco of ELC Technologies, talks about working remotely from Ankara, Turkey, the trials and tribulations of sorting through remote work job postings, pairing, and yak shaving days.
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Show Notes
Josh Ballanco (twitter / github)
ELC Technologies
01:00 – Josh Ballanco Introduction & Backgroud
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- Software engineer with ELC Technologies – a consulting group based out of Portland, OR
- Works out of Ankara, Turkey
- Currently working on SOA (service-oriented architecture) and libraries to support clients
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02:48 – Why Ankara?
03:24 – Distribution of ELC Technologies
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- Tech lead of 4-6 people
- All remote except for some dev ops guys in Portland
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06:22 – Remote work job postings and securing a job
09:13 – Turkey
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- Unique but similar to the U.S.
- Giant melting pot
- Youth-oriented
- Turkey is the place to be for startups
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12:38 – Coordinating & leading a dispersed team
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- Micromanagement
- Letting people know if they are available for pairing daily
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14:50 – Pairing
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- Flexibility
- Skype for voice
- Join.me
- Navigator/Driver setup
- Google+ Hangouts
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18:16 – Yak Shaving Days
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- Once per sprint
- Giant problem that gets a days worth of help from the entire team
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19:32 – Communication outside of pairing
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- HipChat
- Email = important but tricky
- Wiki
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22:15 – Communication is key
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Non-verbal means of communication
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Humor is tremendously nonverbal
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Emoticons
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Shared context
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Patience
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