Distributed Product Development In Wargaming

1. Distributed Product Development
in Wargaming

2. WHO AM I ?
Alexander Derkach
Development Director, Wargaming
•14 years in SW Development,
•3 years in Game Development
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3. IT EXCELLENCE
1st prize in European IT Excellence Awards
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4. WHY WARGAMING?
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5. DISTRIBUTED PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Many perspectives and prerequisites.
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6. WHAT IS WARGAMING?
• Global distributed company: Game
Development and Publishing;
• 4000+ employees in 15+ offices;
• Game and Product development.
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7. SOLID TEAM
Easier to manage and control. Less flexible, less scalable, more risks.
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8. DISTRIBUTED TEAM
Distribution perspectives:
•Knowledge;
•Development;
•Customers;
•Operations.
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9. DISTRIBUTED TEAM
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10. MAIN QUESTION: ”WHY?"
Solid and precise business idea as a foundation.
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11. WHAT IS COMPETITIVE GAMING?
Players engagement via socialization and
competition.
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12. EXPERT OPINION vs BI
Data doesn’t rule the world.
Culture of expert opinion supported with
data.
Experts can be wrong.
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13. DISTRIBUTED DEVELOPMENT
Solid core + Feature Teams with own responsibility and own achievements.
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14. PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
• Stop building "space ships": meaningful features with limited scope,
supported by BI;
• Close interaction with audience and continuous production
improvement;
• Collaboration with development and continuous solution
enrichment.
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15. DEVELOPMENT
• Infrastructure and security;
• Project documentation culture;
• Distributed projects planning;
• Precise code and development guidelines;
• Product oriented mindset and centralized communication.
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16. PROCESSES vs COMMON SENSE
• Common sense is a must;
• Processes should support team efficiency;
• Continuous revising and improvements.
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17. DISTRIBUTED CUSTOMERS
B2B and B2C in one package.
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18. DISTRIBUTED CUSTOMERS
• Deep understanding of Game vision, goals and needs;
• Regular vision coordination;
• Centralized planning;
• Peer to Peer communication on executors level.
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19. UNIQUENESS vs PLATFORM
• Unique solutions – too expensive;
• Platform solutions lack uniqueness;
• Adjustable service oriented architecture.
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20. DISTRIBUTED OPERATIONS
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Life after release and continuous improvements.

21. DISTRIBUTED OPERATIONS
• Reliability and live operations;
• Collaboration with regional operations teams;
• Iterative gameplay and continuous service improvements.
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22. THINK BIG
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23. Thank you.
Alexander Derkach
Development Director, Wargaming
a_derkach@wargaming.net
skype: lenvoy