How GitHub Works (v2)

Transcript

1. github works how

2. we all work in the finest industry of all time

3. dream it that morning

4. build it that afternoon

5. that’s remarkable.

6. can we do better?

7. we’ve been on the same path for years

8. can we improve how product is built?

9. working asynchronously optimizing happiness for five years later github

10. @holman

11. github, inc.

12. ASYNCHRONOUSLY WORKing the philosophy

13. when github was founded they: worked on what they wanted

    worked where they wanted worked when they wanted

14. when github was founded they: were happy

15. why change this?

16. developer happiness is central to our workflow

17. no managers · NO DEADLINES NO MEETINGS · NO WORK

    HOURS this: reflects that workflow

18. in hindsight, we work like a big open source project

19. WORK LIKE OPEN SOURCE

20. the open source model works

21. distributed collaboration

22. GEOGRAPHY

23. open source happens everywhere smart people are everywhere

24. build a company that can work anywhere

25. tools are our office planning, discussing, building

26. all information should be accessible

27. HOURS

28. open source happens at any time people are creative at

    all hours

29. code is a creative endeavor let your people stay fresh

30. night owls ain’t morning people

31. morning people ain’t night owls

32. you can’t enforce creativity

33. minimal process

34. every step you add increases complexity

35. every step you add increases onboarding

36. every step you add increases inefficiency

37. minimize human processes

38. code branching & release (WRONG) V2 BRANCH QA MANAGER STABLE

    merged FEATURE BRANCH TUESDAY CODE REVIEW

39. code branching & release (WRONG) V2 BRANCH QA MANAGER STABLE

    merged FEATURE BRANCH X TUESDAY CODE REVIEW

40. minimize human processes code branching & release

41. code branching & release branch pull request master merged

42. code branching & release merged run tests auto-deploy

43. sometimes it’s not about automation sometimes you have to remove

    barriers

44. ship code quicker

45. less metawork, more actual work

46. ASYNCHRONOUSLY WORKing with tools

47. pull requests a request to merge your code

48. pull requests 3,108 github/github pull requests 399 in the last

    month 63 in the last month - 1 year

49. pull requests 3.1 1.4 pull requests PER employee per month,

    2011 pull requests PER employee per month, 2012

50. pull requests we use pulls for any new code

51. pull requests asynchronous ask for feedback at their leisure

52. pull requests mentions ping users, teams

53. pull requests avoid meetings & in-person code review

54. chat

55. chat chat is inherently asynchronous

56. chat tapping me on my shoulder is inherently being a

    jerk

57. chat scheduling a meeting is inherently probably a hate crime

58. chat 83 chat rooms

59. chat ping someone

60. chat ping someone native OS X + ios notifications

61. chat get someone’s attention without bothering them

62. OPTIMIZing HAPPINESS for

63. WHY BE HAPPY?

64. if you’re asking, you’re probably a horrible person but...

65. investing in employees makes fiscal sense (I can’t believe I

    had to say that)

66. happy people produce better work

67. happy people help you recruit

68. happy people keep you happier

69. so how?

70. BREAK CONVENTION from

71. work style asynchronous, distributed

72. side project culture let people build cool things hubot ·

    CI testing · deploy infrastructure door me · music server · support tools dev environment management · more

73. travel

74. company summit 2x/year company-wide brainstorm travel

75. mini-summit 1x/year team-based brainstorm travel

76. any talk, anywhere your talk or as a travel buddy

    travel

77. github destinations hack house for a dozen for a month

    travel

78. github destinations hack house for a dozen for a month

    travel berlin · hawaii · Uruguay · Beijing · rome · etc.

79. travel why?

80. travel travel is eye-opening new perspectives, new approaches

81. travel face time bond with your coworkers

82. travel stay fresh

83. FAMILY focus

84. people have kids and stuff

85. flexible hours & locations are great

86. 120 hour work weeks are silly

87. family-friendly company events

88. existence of families reflects success

89. f i v e YEARS LATER

90. four years in, github’s the same

91. four years in, github’s changed

92. changes and constants are fascinating

93. MORE HUMANS

94. 2010

95. 2010 2011

96. 2010 2011 2012

97. 2012

98. 132 employees today

99. 2.5 million users today

100. death of the hero developer

101. work moves across ops, design, backend, & frontend more frequently

102. rely on other teams for sanity checks

103. pull requests bottleneck prevention:

104. we average 10-20 per day

105. means fast development without sacrificing quality

106. INTERNAL TOOLING

107. the bigger we get, the more time we spend on

     internal tools

108. our dev tools are prettier than most for-profit products

109. SUPPORT

110. Chat

111. TEAM

112. it becomes mathematically improbable that this time was wasted

113. teams

114. teams let you focus

115. but teams shouldn’t be about lock-in

116. permissive repositories permit people to float

117. self-selecting teams hugely important in crisis

118. we still suck at teams it’s important to get right

     though

119. how you work is as important to me as what

     your work is

120. can this work for your company? maybe, maybe not.

121. the point is to reevaluate what is important to you.

122. thanks.

123. @holman