Bartek Nowakowski
From LPP S.A.
Computer Science and MBA graduate, responsible for managing IT teams for the last 4 years. Has experience working for different-size companies ranging from small start-ups to corporation that deal with different IT businesses (firmware, device drivers, mobile, eCommerce, social media, big data). Currently a team leader working for one of biggest eComerce shops in Poland. Involved in organisation of GENE and Polish edition of Washington Business Week. Occasional participant in Tri City IT communities: 3Camp, PHPers, Startup Weekend. Interested in behavioural economics and psychology.
Blog: http://bnowakowski.pl/
Methodology & DevOps
Lessons learned from scaling software
Scaling software is hard. One can argue that scaling software development teams is as hard as creating scalable solutions. Judging by my experience in many cases it's not less crucial though as it contributes to achievement of success as well.
A couple of thoughts from my experience with scaling teams I would like to discuss. As team grows: from somewhat small to big I prefer to move focus during interviews and team development from checking skill set towards culture alignment with current team. Development environment and toolset is becoming an obstacle more exponentially than linear. End-to-end responsibility (Spotify-tribe-alike) helps in both work division and efficiency. It's more crucial to mix "old" tribe with "newbies". Maintaining team integration is much harder so motivation stack (brown bags, knowledge sharing sessions, ship it days, 20% free time) helps a lot (introduced by Atlassian). The bigger team is the more work from leader is required to maintain the same team efficiency, spirit and culture. Understanding organisational behaviour is more crucial along the way. Self-aware leader comes more in hand.