Teleworking: Ah, the joy of no longer having to travel miles to get to the office, enjoying the comfort of your duvet until the last minute on those long winter days, or no longer being disturbed by that noisy neighbor in the open-plan office...
But remote working also means a harsh return to reality for tech leads and managers who have to implement, sometimes with difficulty, a fully remote or hybrid organization.
We didn't wait for COVID to arrive to start using remote collaboration tools, such as instant messaging (aren't we all a little nostalgic when we think back to MSN Messenger?!). With so many solutions available, here is a compilation of tips based on my own experience, designed to make life easier for Dev teams working remotely.
So let's take a look back at the tools and methods used over the past two years that will be useful to you in the coming weeks!
Which tool should you use as a virtual whiteboard?
That good old whiteboard, the first thing I missed when I was sitting alone in front of my computer at home in the morning... Where could I write down the essential information for the team for the day? After a few attempts, here are the solutions I chose, in order of preference:
- Simple, fast, and effective: Excalidraw.com
- More comprehensive but requires creating an account: Draft.io
- The Rolls Royce of collaboration tools, but far too limited in Freemium and, above all, too complex for my needs: Miro
- Last option: Microsoft Whiteboard included in Teams, but limited to collaborative use in meetings.
Social security advice
A quick reminder: be careful with the data you enter into these tools, especially in freemium mode! It is important to bear in mind that only non-sensitive and non-confidential information can be shared via these tools. For those working in "sensitive" organizations, it is essential to seek prior authorization from your security officer.
In short, whether for professional or personal use, the adage remains the same: when it's free, you are the product!
Once this issue was resolved, we had to tackle other daily tasks because some automatic processes had been lost.
How can you ensure effective code reviews and pair programming with remote development teams?
When it comes to code reviews, remote working doesn't necessarily bring anything new to the table : when a developer has finished their task, they create a Merge Request ( or Pull Request). The difference is that instead of going to see their colleague and sitting down with them at the same workstation to discuss the task, they can do so asynchronously by noting their comments in an MR tool such as GitLab. Or they can do so synchronously via instant messaging software.
For pair programming, we all quickly started with screen sharing (Teams/Zoom/Google Chat, Slack).
It has to be said that this is quite limiting, as you quickly want to interact with the code: take the keyboard and alternate with your partner.
The tools are very frustrating: connection speeds, latency. There is also an additional constraint, since this collaboration requires developers to replicate a similar environment. In a multi-project context... it's a guaranteed headache!
Fortunately, there are more powerful and specific peer programming applications available:
- Code with me for IntelliJ (free 30-minute session). For fans of Jetbrains products, this is definitely the best! But for secure use, you will need to set up an on-premise server.
- LiveShare for Visual Studio Code (unlimited sessions in free mode)
- Floobits is compatible with many IDEs and introduces the concept of shared workspaces.
- Drovio, a secure and platform-agnostic pair programming solution!
Social security advice
Overall, in terms of security, these solutions use end-to-end encryption. Most of them allow you to manage guest rights. But be careful if you can or want to share some of your data with the companies behind these plugins. Only point-to-point connections or connections with an on-premise third-party server will guarantee a sufficiently high level of confidentiality and security.
To code with more than two people at the same time, sorry, but you'll have to get a paid version!
Another solution that can be used for mob programming is a collaborative IDE in the cloud.
In recent years, initiatives such as the following have emerged:
Let's take a few minutes to look at the Gitpod example and do a coding Dojo. Simply add your project to a workspace and share it.
As long as your project is "live," you can share it and work on your code simultaneously as a team, just like on a simple Google Doc.
Gitpod will build and run the tests on containers. To do this, a gitpod.yml file will allow you to define the prerequisites for running your development environment.
No more excuses for not resuming your Kata sessions!
Remote design: a real challenge?
In addition, our projects often involve complex design tasks that must be completed prior to the coding phase. Here too, there are tools available to make your life easier, depending on the nature of the work.
- For relational databases, Navicat Modeler Essential with file sharing available in your company will do the job perfectly: you will see changes in near real time on your side and you will be able to work on your models with your colleagues.
- Need to make a diagram? A flowchart? For those lucky enough to have Visio... it's easy. For everyone else, and depending on the criticality of your data, I suggest using:
- Whimsical, who will perform this role with flying colors.
- Flowchart is an interesting alternative for flowcharts, particularly with the syntax introduced: https://flowchart.fun/
- Based on the same principle but specializing in sequence diagrams: https://swimlanes.io/
- When you're part of a DevOps team, which is responsible for deploying applications to production, you may also need to share a terminal. As always, screen sharing may suffice, but there are certainly more interesting options... Teleconsole: this allows several people to work on the same SSH terminal to perform actions together. This is very useful when you need a colleague's help to work on a VM or ESX.
There is another topic: project "management." I am fortunate to occasionally wear the Scrum Master hat. Agile rituals, with a little adaptation, lend themselves well to teleworking or remote teams.
- Daily and backlog grooming: an agile dashboard and a video conferencing tool
- Retrospective: https://metroretro.io/: currently free, ultra-intuitive, export results.
- Poker Planning:
- The cat at your meeting
- https://www.scrumpoker-online.org/
Instant messaging tools and paperless work solutions did not wait for COVID to arrive before becoming ubiquitous. However, it is clear that their use has literally exploded since the first lockdown!
Some teams have sometimes tended to contract an acute case of meetingitis at the same time... So I rediscovered the use of ROTI (Return on Time Invested). No tools are needed this time; everyone can turn on their camera at the end of the meeting and give their opinion on how useful it was. The feedback is direct, quick, and allows you to gauge the relevance of your meetings. But if you absolutely insist on having an online application, here's one.
Sustainable teleworking
The succession of lockdowns, reopenings, office capacity limits, and other health measures has also introduced the concept of hybrid teams. In practical terms, it is very rare to have everyone in the same place at the same time. I won't go into detail about management methodologies, as that could be the subject of another article. I would therefore like to refer you to the work of the Gitlab team, which has been compiling all of its remote working practices for many years: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/guide/
A veritable gold mine where you can find useful information tailored to your needs: recruitment, onboarding, evaluation, management, etc.
The Gartner Institute predicts that 50% of employees will continue to work remotely several days a week in the coming years. I hope that these tips will help you in your daily life and in this sudden but lasting transformation of our working environments. Feel free to give feedback or share your experiences in the comments!
