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Stabilize, Modularize, Modernize: Scaling Slack’s Mobile Codebases

In the first post about the Duplo initiative, we discussed the reasons for launching a project to revamp Slack’s mobile codebases, and what we accomplished in Duplo’s initial Stabilization phase. This post will explore modularization, and then there will be a third post to describe how we modernized our codebase and the overall results of the project.

As we explained in the first post, after Stabilization the goals for the Duplo project were:

We originally viewed Modularization and Modernization as two separate phases of the Duplo project, but as we got further into planning we realized that doing them sequentially would cause redundant work, as we would have to refactor much of the code twice. In addition, Android had a greater overall focus on Modularization and adoption of newer technologies, rather than an overall re-architecture, so having a separate Modernization phase didn’t make sense. We made the decision to combine these phases and make them a single effort. This second part of the project lasted a year, starting in February of 2021.

While we worked on Modularization and Modernization at the same time, we are going to discuss them in two separate posts, because there is much to be said about each effort.

As we began the second part of the project, it wasn’t possible for the smaller Duplo core team — which worked on Stabilization — to take on all the effort involved. We needed support and resourcing from across the product teams as well, to ensure we would be able to make a significant impact on all parts of the codebase. In each pillar (product team), we chose a lead who was responsible for planning their Duplo work. These pillar leads worked with the managers and engineers on their teams to determine how best to modernize their part of the codebase, which features to tackle first, and how to share resources between Duplo and regular feature work.

Involving all the feature teams allowed them to maintain ownership of their code, and ensured developers learned the new design patterns we were adopting with Duplo. There was still a core group of Duplo leads to coordinate the project, help the pillar teams to set goals, and provide advice and help. We held weekly syncs, and of course we also had dedicated Slack channels where we could discuss any issues which came up. The Infrastructure teams on both platforms, in addition to handling their own code, also helped provide extra resources to update other areas of the codebase.

Full Article: Tracy Stampfli & Bryan Stern
Mar 28, 2022
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