[These are the slides from my session at Microsoft Build 2020] Working remotely is not easy, even if you are a developer. Let’s take a look at some techniques and tools to improve our productivity when working remotely (and that works as well if you’re working in office!)

2. Life of a Remote Developer: Productivity tips
Davide Benvegnu
DevOps Architect

3. Challenges
Really easy to feel disconnected (Warning: you might become a hermit)
Collaboration is harder if you can’t see and talk with someone
Working too much / not enough
Work prioritization and scheduling
“I have an old laptop at home while I have a super-PC at the office”
…bad health habits, proximity to the fridge, distractions (who said Neflix?)…

4. Let’s fix this
aka how to be a happy remote developer

5. Really easy to feel disconnected
Tip 1: Keep Communication Going
Use chat/video communication tools (Who said Teams? )
Communicate as much as possible
Clarify anything that could be a misunderstanding
Include social breaks in your schedule
Different Time Zone? No problem! (mostly…)
Use async communication
Teams
GitHub Discussions – coming soon
Email – but do we really need it?

6. Collaboration is harder
Tip 2: Define (and Follow) Processes
https://guides.github.com/introduction/flow/

7. Collaboration is harder
Tip 3: Do code reviews
A “must have” for PRs
Code Reviews help in
Getting a higher quality code base, eventually
Developer learn the code base
Mitigate security risks
Better Code Reviews tips
Use a shared Checklist
Use inline Discussions/Comments for clarifications and change requests
Foster a positive code review culture (no blames – yes feedback)

8. Collaboration is harder
Tip 4: Co-coding / Pair-programming
Useful for learning, debugging, solve problems… But, remotely?
LiveShare
Visual Studio
VS Code
Browser!
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/liveshare/

9. Overworking / Underworking
Tip 5: Time Management
Implement Time Boxing
Work 1 hour, then take 5 minutes break
Helps keeping focus
Check email/chat/notification at interval, not continuously
Monitor your time
Specific tools

10. Work prioritization and scheduling
Tip 6: Organize Your Work
Use tools to organize and prioritize your (and your team) activities
Azure Boards
GitHub Projects
Use them properly
Higher priority first (top)
Assign owners
Update status
Categorize work items (tags / labels)

11. “My home pc is slow”
Tip 7: Use Cloud-hosted Dev-environments
VMs in Azure
Images with Visual Studio, Data Science tools, etc
It feels sooo 2000…
Codespaces
Visual Studio Codespaces (online.visualstudio.com)
GitHub Codespaces (coming very soon)
Complete development environment in a browser!
Accessible from anywhere and any connected device
Powerful & Fully customizable
Quick look at Visual Studio Codespaces: https://youtu.be/rg0VHA_YZUI

12. Demo
Codespaces

13. THANK YOU
Davide Benvegnu
DevOps Architect

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