Getting started

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What is Pullpo

Pullpo is a tool that promotes effective communication among software developers during the code review process, which leads to releasing new features faster.

It allows tracking objective development metrics which are combined with the expert insights of those involved in the process to facilitate identifying bottlenecks in the development cylce that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Issues

1. Code review conversations on GitHub are slow.

Developers don't even need to open GitHub that often, all the tools they use already integrate with it so they comfortably commit their changes from their favourite IDE.

Pull requests that need to be reviewed end up taking longer to approve since developers are not actively checking for review comments.

2. Without structure, things get messy.

In an attempt to speed things up, developers reach out to their reviewers via messages on Slack. The discussion that usually generates knowledge and agreements and should be easily traceable gets scattered through different direct messages, or even worse, through channels where there are other people that aren't involved in the code review process and shouldn't get bothered at all.

3. Information is valuable.

Teams that follow an agile methodology like Scrum usually schedule meetings to discuss if any problems have occurred, any obstacles have appeared or if anyone has an idea to improve the team's productivity or well-being. These problems or ideas are triggered at some moment in between encounters. Regardless of daily standups, sprint reviews or retrospectives, some time passes where the developer's focus will shift onto a new task, and they might fail to recall their insights in the next meeting.

Solutions

1. Use a communication tool for... well... communication.

Synchronizing code review conversations with a messaging application like Slack facilitates communication and speeds up the process. Your colleagues are already used to communicating via Slack, let's make it comfortable for everyone to share ideas, propose improvements and engage with each other's code.

2. Keep each code review in its own context.

Every time a pull request is opened in GitHub, Pullpo creates a Slack channel and invites all involved team members. There, the author, assignees and reviewers can have a discussion that is automatically synchronized with GitHub. That way no one is left behind: those that prefer to continue using GitHub for their code reviews can do so while still being part of the conversation that is happening on Slack.

Reviewers need to manage multiple code reviews at once? Not a problem. Since each discussion happens in a different channel, everything is well organized and messages don't get mixed up.

When a pull request is merged, Pullpo archives the corresponding channel so it doesn't get in the way, but all taken decisions and created knowledge can still be found in the future.

3. Collect insights at the right time.

Developers should be able to give their feedback when it's fresh. By keeping track of development metrics, and defining objetives for squads, Pullpo identifies when a significant deviation occurs. These deviations are usually generated by specific issues and are an opportunity to come up with ideas for improvement, so we prompt the team members that are most likely to have relevant insights about it.

Metrics are conveniently plotted alongside the obtained feedback to help identify bottlenecks in the development cycle.

Who benefits from Pullpo

The development team

With Pullpo - PR Channels the right people get notified at the right times. Developers that author or review multiple pull requests simultaneously have a dedicated space for each discussion, which keeps conversations organized and unclutters channels that were meant for other purposes.

Communication is more fluid, all involved members are kept up to date and pull requests get reviewed faster. No more stale pull requests means developers can refocus their efforts on the next feature and feel more productive.

CTOs and Managers

Pullpo - Insights is a tool that shows how the team is performing. Define objectives for your squads to stay on top of metric deviations and learn what might've caused them by collecting your developer's expert insights at the appropiate moments.

A manager or CTO can find out what is working for a squad and what is missing in another. Valuable information can be discovered and shared to help improve the performance across all squads in the whole development team.

Getting help

Join the community

At Pullpo we value our customer's feedback. We have set up a Slack community where everyone can request features, report issues or ask for assistance.

You're more than welcome to join.