distributed development at symbian - perforce · symbian ltd distributed development at symbian....

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2006 Symbian Ltd.

Deepak ModgilConfiguration Management EngineerSymbian Ltd

Distributed Development at Symbian

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Outline• Introduction

… Company Profile

… Export Control and Intellectual Property

• Offshore Software Development Outsourcing… Why Go Offshore

… Why India

… Journey and Evolution of Symbian India

• Challenges Faced with Distributed Development… Communication/Cultural/Language

… HR

… IT Infrastructure

… Training

… Perforce• Symbian’s Perforce Service

• Symbian OS™ Development Process

• What Makes It Successful?

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Symbian Ltd

• Develops and licenses the Symbian OS

…the leading mobile operating system for advanced, data-enabled mobile phones (aka Smartphones), to the world’s leading handset

manufacturers

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Symbian Ltd

• Founded in 1998 as a private independent company, Symbian was a spinout from Psion Software and had 120 staff

• Symbian is privately owned by the major telecoms players: Ericsson, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson

• As of August 2006 Symbian employs 1,300 with 1,000 Software Engineers across global sites

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Redwood CityStaff: 8

London & CambridgeStaff: 890

RonnebyStaff: 139

TokyoStaff: 27

Symbian Development Sites & Offices

Bangalore,IndiaStaff: 246

Sydney,Australia

Beijing, China

Seoul,South Korea

• Figures relate to 05 May 2006• Offices in italics indicate representative offices.• Employee numbers include contract and non-permanent staff

Vancouver,Canada

Tel Aviv,Israel

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Export Control & Intellectual Property

• Symbian success depends on overseas market

• Symbian OS contains code relating to and enabling cryptography

• Export licence needed to deliver Symbian OS outside of the EU

• Additional issues include Intellectual Property Rights, Configuration Management and Contractual Agreements

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Why go Offshore?

• Rapid growth in Europe during 2002 to meet increasing customer demands and ‘take off’ of the Ecosystem (3rd party community)

…It is becoming harder to cope domestically

…Economies of scale

• Decision taken to look at offshore options to complement existing sites and to:

…Increase risk control

…Broaden access to a global talent base

…Take advantage of time differences

…Deliver more functionality whilst maintaining the same cost base

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Why India?

• Deep pool of engineering talent

• Off shoring well established for IT services

• Risk and 3rd party acceptability

• Symbian already have an existing strong partnerships in India

…Keen to capitalize on this and to grow more

• Solid process capability, many companies at CMML5/CMMI

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Symbian’s India Offshore Journey

2001

First proposals on offshore use

2 offshore vendors tested for onshore work

Offshore site established with40 staff working on future OS projects

Offshore site ramp up to 150+ staff

Symbian India subsidiary established

2002 2003 2004 2005

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India Site - Evolution

• Staged approach going from maintenance focus to independent development

Responsibility

Maintenance Co-development Independent Development

Time

Accumulated competencies within SODC

• Basic understanding• Project Management skills• Quality systems• Predictability

• Scalability of low level skill sets• Stability

• Functional understanding• Co-design skills• Higher rate of acceptance• Seamless global development

• Critical domain knowledge• Independent design skills• Specialized streams of

technology

• Ability to define and lead

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Challenges with India

• Problem: Communication

…Time Zone

…Culture, Language and Education

…Personal Contact

• Solution: Communication Improved

…Applications such as IM and video conferencing

…Increased visits

…Personal introductions

…Internal switchboard implemented

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Challenges with India

• Problem: Human Resources

… Vendors own resources assigned to tasks

… Resources having lack of knowledge of Symbian

… Different recruitment policy, criteria and requirements

… Staff turnover

• Solution: Symbian HR Team Created

… Formal Symbian interview process and criteria introduced

• Employment key requirements

… Fair and equal employment policy

• Rewards and bonuses

• Working conditions and respect

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Challenges with India• Problem: IT Infrastructure

… Vendors own network and IS resources

• Poor network performance – slow and unreliable

• Integration issues with Perforce

• Solution 1: Perforce Proxy Introduced

… Little improvement in performance

• Solution 2: Symbian IS Network Implemented

… Symbian IS staff in India

… Larger network link with lower latency

• Productive network dependant tasks

• Perforce sync times reduced by half

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Challenges with India

• Problem: Training

… Vendor responsible for providing training

• External trainer - Not enough knowledge on Symbian OS/tools

• “Training the Trainer”

• Lack of interaction - Seriousness of training not understood

… IP/Export control

• Limited access to training materials

• Solution: Symbian Technical Training Team Created

… New trainer put through intensive Symbian training

… More access to training materials

… Bootcamp setup for new starters and graduates

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Symbian’s Perforce Service

Symbian/ UIQ Sweden P4 server

Symbian IndiaP4 Proxy

Sub contractor company -CanadaP4 Proxy

Symbian UK domain

3rd party/sub contractor companies

Symbian Japan

P4 Servers

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Symbian OS Development Process

Development

Deliver

Master

Integrations

Quality

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Symbian OS Development Process

All managed by a Software Change

Control Board

MCL contains all supported platforms

which are maintained in parallel

Files are held in the Master Codleline which is

over 2 gigabytes

Contains 300,000 files in 16,000 directories

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Challenges with India

• Problem: Perforce Access

…Poor network link

…Contractual restrictions on Symbian OS

• Limited access to Perforce repository

• A separate area in Perforce created

• Additional protection masks in protection table

…Increased Perforce user base

• Not enough Perforce training

• Inexperienced users working with Perforce

• Increased overhead on UK teams to populate MCL

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Challenges with India

• Solution 1: OGEL Licence received from DTI

…Established formal procedure for exporting under licence

• Record deliveries of Symbian OS by info from Perforce

• ODC still had limited access to source code

• Redefine and reengineer work done by ODC

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Challenges with India

• Solution 2: Symbian India established

… Export/3rd party source agreements signed

… Direct submissions to MCL now possible from India

• Staggered approach to MCL submissions

• Handful of teams selected to submit to MCL

• CM plans written and understood by UK and India teams

• MCL submissions policed/approved by the UK Build and Integration teams

…Special ‘shared’ codeline created

• Allowed sharing of file independent of geographical location

• Codeline free of restricted software

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So What Makes It Successful?

• Before You Start

…Tools, practices and processes have to be well defined and implemented at UK location

…Time, patience and perseverance is a key to success.

…Strategy has to be well defined before moving forward

…Greater attention given to Project and Risk Management

…Planning is imperative

…Use a ‘staged approach’

…Be ready to review and move forward or review and try again.

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So What Makes It Successful?

• Formation of Distributed Development Site

…Set a common development environment

…Set an infrastructure for collaborative sessions

…Give a 360 degree view of project information

…Establish and support relationships

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Final Remarks

• Software development is now a global multi-site and multiculturally distributed

• Managers and employees face new challenges on many levels not only technical, but also cultural and social differences

• To make global sites work you need to be able to connect to resources globally

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Thank You!

Questions?

Please forward all further comments and questions to:

deepak.modgil@symbian.com