The document discusses the principles of "Conversational Development" or "ConvDev", which is a framework for more efficient collaboration. The four principles are: 1) using shortened development cycles to minimize waste, 2) threading conversations through all stages for transparency, 3) having open conversations without requiring full consensus to avoid delays, and 4) focusing conversations on business results and metrics. The document argues that following these principles can help reduce meetings, handoffs, and inefficiencies compared to traditional development practices.

1. Conversations
Job van der Voort - @Jobvo
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2. Things people in tech like
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3. working on cool stuff
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4. building great tech
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5. gifs
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6. working from home
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7. Things people in tech don't like
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8. meetings
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9. more meetings
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10. going back and forth between
product and engineering
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11. going back and forth between
development and operations
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12. going back and forth
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13. fixing things that are broken while
we're working on cool stuff
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14. getting distracted
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15. pleading to get operations to
support my apps
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16. supporting an infrastructure while
rogue developers try to break it all
the time
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17. commuting
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18. Things we don't like to do feel like a
waste of time
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19. Things we don't like to do are
inefficient
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20. By doing less of the things we don't
like to do, we can be more efficient
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21. ..and more happy?
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22. Modern development
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23. @Jobvo - GitLab

24. ?! => meeting || back and forth
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25. Where does it go wrong?
• Need to sync up on information, but it's scattered over apps,
documents, logs
• Not all stakeholders are available
• Slow iterations, big changes
• Communication (meetings) are slow and wasteful
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26. How do we fix this?
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27. Conversational Development
ConvDev
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28. 170 people, no office
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29. A framework for working better
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30. for everyone
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31. 4 principles of ConvDev
1. Shortened cycle
2. Threaded through all stages
3. Open without consensus
4. Result-oriented
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32. 1Shortened cycle
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33. 1. Shortened cycle
Minimally Viable Change (MVC)
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34. 1. Shortened cycle
• Easier to coordinate, reason, estimate
• Quicker to respond to market need
• Higher predictability
• Better code quality
• Easier to troubleshoot
• More sense of progress
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35. 1. Shortened cycle
Include gatekeepers into the conversation
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36. 1. Shortened cycle
1. Deploy frequently: if it hurts, do it more
2. Single changes: easier to link to problems
3. Deploy on peak times
4. Automated integration testing: test everything
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37. 2Thread the conversation through all
stages
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38. 2. Thread the conversation through all stages
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39. 2. Thread the conversation through all stages
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40. Link everything
• Give everyone access to the same information
• Only way to measure cycle time, therefore focus on results
• Optimally: Everything in a single tool (GitLab)
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41. 3Open conversations without
consensus
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42. 3. Open conversations without consensus
Embrace asynchronous conversations
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43. 3. Open conversations without consensus
Prevent "Not Invented Here" syndrome by
practicing innersourcing
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44. 3. Open conversations without consensus
Prevent "Not Invented Here" syndrome by
practicing innersourcing
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45. 3. Open conversations without consensus
• Small changes allow you to make mistakes, consensus takes
more time
• Increases reuse of solutions, prevents duplicate work
• Increases shared knowledge
• Work async and remote!
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46. 4Result oriented conversations
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47. 4. Result oriented conversations
Connect work to relevant business
metrics
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48. 4. Result oriented conversations
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49. Summary
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50. 1. Shortened cycle
2. Threaded through stages
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51. 3. Open without consensus
4. Result oriented
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52. Conclusion
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53. @Jobvo - GitLab

54. Questions?
Find me @Jobvo
Slides at jobvandervoort.com/talks
about.gitlab.com
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55. @Jobvo - GitLab