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A communication solution for dev teams

July 27, 2022 • 10 min read
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Developer teams use a really wide variety of tools to build software. GitHub, JIRA, Slack and that’s only the beginning. These tools allow communication in their own platforms (it’s great by the way, we use them all at HOV) and you can keep updating teammates as things go along. What started happening with us, however, is a disconnect in communication leading to a big information gap.
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Diving deeper

GITHUB

Normally, a developer will copy the link to the pull request and paste it into a Slack channel for it to be reviewed. A reviewer would then visit the link, submit a review, and switch back to Slack to inform the developer that a review has been submitted. Comments to a pull request oftentimes go unnoticed.
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JIRA

There are cases wherein some developers discuss something about a specific JIRA issue in Slack. Discussions about the same JIRA issue can also happen within the comments section of the issue itself in JIRA. At the same time, these discussions can happen which cause gaps in important information and details.
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Our solutions

There are cases wherein some developers discuss something about a specific JIRA issue in Slack. Discussions about the same JIRA issue can also happen within the comments section of the issue itself in JIRA. At the same time, these discussions can happen which cause gaps in important information and details.

So our second solution, seeing as we were a developer team with some extra time, was to build our own product. The product built for internal usage was meant to help automate our pull request review workflow.

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Along the way, we quickly realized that other dev teams might be facing similar issues - so we wanted to build it for YOU. The tool syncs comments and updates from GitHub pull requests and JIRA issues to your Slack channels.

There are 3 main results
our teams saw from using
ThreadSync

Sync communication

When a pull request is created in GitHub, the bot will start a message thread in a Slack channel. Updates to the same pull request will be added as replies to this thread. Any replies to the thread in the Slack channel will be added as a comment to the pull request within GitHub. Also, any comment added to the Pull Request in GitHub will also be added as a reply to the thread in Slack.

When someone shares a specific JIRA issue in Slack, the bot will use that message as the thread for updates to that JIRA issue. Any reply to that Slack thread will be added as a comment to the JIRA issue. Also, any comment added to the JIRA issue will also be added as a reply to the thread in Slack.

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Shipping faster

Juggling between tools just to communication - - a waste of time. We cut down time by sticking to one tool, whichever one we are comfortable with and the one that’s more convenient to use!

Save time

Quick communication 🤝 Effective platform usage = shipping 🚀

Who is this ideal for?

We’re a remote team of 20-30 developers. ThreadSync is ideal for developers teams who are remote and ranging from 30-60 teammates. Teams should be using:

· GitHub to manage their codebases

· JIRA to track their tasks

It’s also very useful for leads who want to be updated on discussions and updates happening throughout the development.

What’s coming next?

We believe in evolving products over time, and with the need and use cases that arise. This means your feedback is really valuable in shaping the future of ThreadSync. We’ll be adding more communication platforms soon (we know there’s more than Slack out there) and are working on further smoothening the process and flow of ThreadSync. You can send us feedback and suggestions if you have any, here.

A bit about me

I’m Christopher, and I’ve been a software engineer at HOV for almost 6 years. I’m still coding but most of my time is spent managing teams and building products. I can answer anything about all the games and helping fellow devs in their endeavours is another favourite activity.