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Teamwork

Distributed

Friday

  • Solving the Small but Important Issues with Fix-It Fridays | Elastic Blog (2017-12-23) #ril

    • But it’s the perfect setup for discussing an important topic here at Elastic: How do busy engineers, often working on large and gnarly projects, handle the SMALL ISSUES — like changing a metaphorical light bulb — that inevitably pop up from time to time?

      The answer: Fix-It Friday.

    • The Elasticsearch code is housed in a public repository on GitHub and accessible to anyone. When a user finds bugs, spots missing features, or wants to make a specific request, they can flag it using the issues tab by simply submitting a new issue. The process is OPEN and TRANSPARENT — just the way we like it.

      Each day, someone on the Elasticsearch team is ASSIGNED to a role called SUPPORT DEV HELP. In this role, the engineer has the dual duty of aiding the Elastic SUPPORT TEAM while looking for fresh issues in the Elasticsearch repository. When a new issue arises, the engineer will add a label to help the team prioritize when to tackle it, and HOW MUCH EFFORT it might take to solve it.

      However, not all issues have a simple diagnosis, nor an easy fix.

    • “If there’s enough information, but it’s not clear that the issue is something we really want to handle due to policy, or maybe the person handling the ticket doesn’t have ENOUGH KNOWLEDGE in the ISSUE AREA to make a decision on it, then we can mark the ticket ‘discuss’ and it goes into the queue for Fix-It Friday,” said Colin Goodheart-Smithe, Elasticsearch Software Engineer.

    • Elasticsearch Team Lead Clint Gormley created the Fix-It Friday initiative a little over three years ago as a time when these small issues were given to engineers to solve. That AMBITIOUS CONCEPT didn’t last very long. The team quickly learned that small issues often TURNED OUT TO BE BIG ONES in disguise. (Think: the filament in the light bulb looks dead, but in reality the electricity is out.) So, the scope of Fix-It Friday evolved into a GET TOGETHER FOR DISCUSSING user requests and FINDING SOLUTIONS. Since the Elastic team is distributed, the meetup also became a weekly opportunity to get off Slack and email and get focused on a team video call.

      “It’s a good time,” said Gormley, “getting a group with such a wide range of expertise in one virtual room — it’s amazing.”

    • About 10 issues are discussed during a typical ONE HOUR Fix-It Friday session. Issues are LATER fixed and implemented or de-escalated. When asked whether there was a particular issue from a Fix-It Friday meeting that jumped out at him, or that he thought was quirky or fun, Gormley laughed. “We’ve only been through 12,000 issues or something ….”

  • Larry Page, Sergey Brin absent from Google TGiF town halls - 9to5Google (2019-04-09)

    • Google has historically maintained an OPEN CULTURE with employees having a lot of INPUT INTO INTERNAL AFFAIRS. One aspect to this is a WEEKLY “TGiF” TOWN HALL that is a COMPANY-WIDE BROADCAST. However, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin haven’t attended these meetings in 2019.

    • Despite the acronym, TGiF at Google is NO LONGER HELD ON FRIDAYS, but rather THURSDAY AFTERNOONS to better allow all employees from around the world to participate. These meetings typically involve a presentation about a new product or feature, with a Q&A session following after. This gives employees the chance to directly question TOP EXECUTIVES.

    • According to BuzzFeed today, the Google co-founders have not attended any of these meetings in 2019. Larry Page is currently the CEO of Alphabet, while Sergey Brin is President. Historically, at least one — if not both — would attend and be able to answer questions.

    • Google employees describe this NO-SHOW as the “longest attendance lapse in company history,” dating back to at least 1999.

      For years, Page and Brin have attended, either individually or together, and faced questions from Google’s rank and file about the company and its direction. Asked when their last TGIF appearance was, Google declined to comment.

    • A source speaking to BuzzFeed says this absence isn’t “entirely unexpected” given that TGiF is just for Google employees, not Alphabet where Page and Brin spend the majority of their time. In theory, questions should be directed at Sundar Pichai and the team under him. However, the founders were present throughout the Alphabet reorganization and the most of 2018.

    • Google did not comment on the absence, which could reflect a tightening of the open culture. For example, TGiF recordings are no longer saved in perpetuity and now removed after a few weeks. Their absence comes amid various internal controversies in the past year from sexual harassment to military projects.