Google Apps & The Importance of Great Infrastructure
August 10, 2010
Today was my first day at a new job. I knew much of the people who works there, so culture wasn’t a real breakthrough for me.
So, I arrived in the office by 11:00 am, said ‘Hi’ to my friends (it’s really good to be back, guys), and by 1 pm (one lunch hour included) I was ready to work. I had it all installed, permissions given on the projects I would be working and a thin documentation ready to be read.
I spent another hour or two reading and talking to people who were on my project and started delivering real code. That means I had barely 3 hours of environment setup, organization setup, chair adjusting, etc and was GETTING THINGS DONE. When I began thinking about it, I was totally amazed.
This is the kind of organization mindset I think brings this kind of result:
- Leave development stuff to development people: permissions, servers, environment, documentation, everything; If they’re smart, they will know what to do. If they’re not, don’t hire them
. - Plan! Plan to have everything needed when people arrive. Map your risks, act accordingly when needed. Don’t overplan, though: there is stuff that is unpredictable;
- Don’t assume risks you don’t have to: If you don’t have to micromanage something, don’t do it. Why would a company want to run an e-mail server? Google Apps delivers it all! Calendar, Docs, Sites, Groups, Mail! With GMail user interface and functionalities!
That being, I couldn’t have had a more productive first day at any new job. It was a marvelous experience, and I am looking forward to improving it even further.
What about you? Any good/bad situations on a new company set up you would like to share? Comment!
