

Finding A Development Process For a Small Startup Team - appbot
http://stuartkhall.com/posts/finding-a-development-process-for-a-small-startup-team

======
njharman
I've been developing professionally ~20yrs, about last ~10yrs been more
focused on process, development practices, etc. Not saying I'm an expert, just
that I've "been around".

The thing that struck me immediately was focus on tools. Process is not about
tools. Tools do not solve problems (believe me as you grow they'll cause many
problems).

Figure out* process, only then look for or make the tools that you need. Best
to start out with the simplest thing that could possibly work. Which for many
is whiteboards or some similar low tech solution.

* you (should) never stop evaluating and improving process. One of the best processes to adopt is "iteration" with bits of evaluation and planning in between.

~~~
pxlpshr
I totally agree. Not only that, tools can vary depending on which industry you
are shipping product in. If it has anything to do with finance or healthcare,
PCI and HIPAA compliance can certainly impact what tools your
security/compliance officer may or may not restrict. Many frown heavily at
"cloud", which means more than half the tools in this blog posts could not be
used if he decided against it.

I've been in all sorts of startups from small <$80K to $150M; the tools we
used always changed, but post-it notes and whiteboarding were universal no
matter the size. :) I know this post is about small startups but just for
perspective...

The most consistent processes, which a lot of startups misunderstand when
scaling up hence why MBAs fit in well here, are the ones that flow between the
various departments like business, sales, engineering, marketing.

How each project is then executed within the various teams will change greatly
based on the business. For an engineer at a previous bank I worked for, you
have to consider audit trails, PCI compliance, two-person authentication for
deployments, etc. It took 8 people to make one deployment to a production
server with less than 1,000 uniques per day.

To most tech startups, the inefficiency is appalling and frustrating. That's
why I left. But to federal regulators, it's necessary processes in place to
maintain integrity.

~~~
erdogan
In theory, I agree with process over tool, and I have seen tool-fetish harming
collaboration before. On the flip side, I welcome processes that are naturally
evolving with the use of some tools, I don't think we should be too rigid on
whether the tool or the process comes first. Whiteboards and post-its may be
great if you are working alone, or with people in the same physical space. If
you are scattered across different time-zones, these simple tools are not
sufficient to mediate collaboration remotely. You have to figure out ways to
emulate being in the same physical space to begin with, in order to be in the
same mental space. That's when different tools become relevant. And as we
figure out best uses of new tools, we might witness the emergence of a new
process that was not around or relevant 10 years ago. For this reason, I enjoy
these type of posts where people share their collaboration setup, I find them
inspiring.

~~~
swombat
Worth throwing in my article about this topic:
<http://swombat.com/2011/10/24/people-processes-tools>

Processes definitely come before tools. People come even before processes,
though.

------
sausagefeet
Process process process, Jesus fucking.christ. it's around every.corner now.
You know what process works? The ones your developers will do. It's no the
same for every developer. I.can't function in Scrum, but my own process works
great for me. Some people can't work in my process but function great in
Scrum. Whatever the system is just work with your.developers to figure out.how
they become happy. So sick of these posts detailing.complicated solutions when
sitting down and having a few fucking.conversations with your developers would
solve it.</rant>

------
erdogan
We use Pivotal Tracker, Skype group chat, TeamViewer, Dropbox, and email. I'm
pretty happy with this setup for daily/weekly product development and
planning. I do want to give Trello a try though, to keep track of hi-level
tasks (e.g. doing research) and on-going brainstorms (e.g. strategic product
decisions) that are not immediately tactical/dev tasks. Would love to hear
thoughts from people who use Trello or other tools for these purposes.

------
psycho
Well, for us "Asana + Facebook chat + Email + Dropbox + Google Docs" works
right now. Although, I know that we don't have "a process of a dream", in
fact. I liked this talk about distributed team in Treehouse -
<http://vimeo.com/47271938> \- of course, it's about rather a big company but
has interesting points for anyone, I guess (I also liked 4-day workweek idea).

~~~
noinput
Interested to know why you chose Facebook chat over the others.

~~~
psycho
Well, maybe it turned out so that it was the closest available tool and we
didn't think about alternatives as we're all Facebook users.

