SmartBear
Cart
Login
Welcome back to SmartBear Software
Click the links below to login to your favorite tool or into your client services portal
SmartBear Forum
Register
Log in
Development
DevComplete
ALMComplete
AQtime Pro
Automated Build Studio
Testing & QA
TestComplete
TestExecute
TestRecorder
QAComplete
LoadCOmplete
Web Monitoring
AlertSite
Free Tools
QAPlanner
DevPlanner
Looking for a Free Trial?
Products
Products
For Development
Collaborator
Code Review & Document Review
ALMComplete
Lifecycle Management
AQtime Pro
Performance Profiling
Automated Build Studio
Software Release Management
SoapUI Pro
API Testing - SoapUI Pro
All Development
For Testing & QA
TestComplete
Automated Testing
QAComplete
Test Management
WebLoadUI Pro
Load Testing
AQtime Pro
Performance Profiling
LoadUI Pro
API Load Testing
All Testing & QA
For Web Monitoring
AlertSite
Website Monitoring
AlertSite API Monitoring
Free API Monitoring
AlertSite Insite
Internal Website Monitoring
Free Tools
AlertSite for API Monitoring
CodeReviewer
WebLoadUI
DéjàClick
AlertSite for Magento
Open Source Tools
SoapUI
LoadUI
Get the Free Tools
For Your Needs
Agile Testing
API Testing
Automated Testing
Code Review
Load Testing Tools
Test Management
Web Monitoring
Resources
Resources Overview
eBooks
Templates & Worksheets
Videos
Whitepapers
Support
Support when you need it
SmartBear technical representatives are always ready to help with your product needs.
Browse our support portal
Know what you're looking for?
Downloads
User Guides
How To Tutorials
Technical Articles
Screencasts/Videos
General support
Forums
Troubleshooter
FAQs
Product Versions
Community
About Us
Contact Us
Our Partners
Our Team
Our Customers
Careers
Awards
Our Speakers
Request a Speaker
News & Events
News Releases
Events
In the News
Webinars On-demand
Prior Events
Blog
Share
Home
›
Team Building
Team Building
SPEAKER: So I also want to tell you a story about team building because, and I know when you think of team building, it's kind of like, oh my god, team building. It makes you think of like, going to these retreats where you play stupid games, and everybody hates each other at the end. But I want to talk about like, a real story of team building which happened at a certain company that everyone here is very familiar with. Where there is a team in Austin where we're based, and I'm from. And there was a team of developers. And I'm not going to name the exact thing, because you know, I'm not allowed to. You know how the lawyers are, especially at that company. So the team was given 30 offshore developers, 30 developers in India with the instruction that they need to now write code faster. Which really, we all know that that's not how that works. You don't just add people to a team, whether they're in India or not, and then actually the the project goes faster. Once again, because of rules that someone who works at this very company invented. So they should kind of know better. So, OK. They started working with the Indians. Of course, it wasn't going well. So I went there, and I said OK, I get it. Like, we get the general problem. What's specifically the problem here with the Indians? Why are you guys not getting along? And the lead developer, this is a quote, told me the problem is that they suck. That was his in depth analysis of exactly what was wrong with-- So, OK. They suck. Why do they suck? And there's all this stuff starts coming out. Well, we sent them a 70 page specification about how we write code and stuff. They ignored it. We've been on these conference calls at 7:00 PM. Somebody's Wednesday, Thursday, whatever, and they're not listening. You know, that kind of stuff. So I said OK. And we started with a code review process. And yes, it was with our tool, but the results would have been true no matter what tool or what thing that they used, I think. But they started talking about code. They started discussing things inside of code instead of these things. And so we came back in five weeks. That same guy, quote, well, those guys are pretty cool. And the reason he said that they're pretty cool, pretty cool. Another in depth analysis, but at least it was positive, right? He's like yeah, you know, it turns out that of course, the Indians weren't dumb. They were green, right? They were inexperienced. And once they started just talking to them inside the code, they started learning very quickly, and became productive in a matter of a month. And the reason is pretty clear. Because people don't read, or don't learn, I should say and digest information through things like specifications and meetings, right? I believe, anyway, that software development is more like an apprenticeship sort of thing. You learn by writing code with other people. Pair programming being perhaps the most extreme version, and that's fine, too. But so is other sort of less time intensive things that still involve people talking about code in the code.
