How CyberAgent Uses GitHub

How one engineer united 700+ projects across Japan's leading internet media company under a single platform.

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The Challenge

700 projects, no common ground

CyberAgent is a leader in smartphone community and gaming, providing companies in Japan with applications and platforms for advertising their own products and services. When Junko Okuda started at CyberAgent in 2008 as a Java engineer, sharing source code for CyberAgent's various web services and platforms, including their popular Ameba Community and game services, was difficult. Teams working on other projects were feeling the same pain, implementing various combinations of solutions to make working together easier. Engineers wanted to share source code, and they were going to great lengths to do it. Some project teams shared modified code as compressed file attachments in email or over file sharing systems. Reviews were completed on individual PCs using tools like IDEs, Eclipse, or IntelliJ. Other project teams completed code reviews using Review Board, which required individually configured servers on a per-project basis. Unique tools for unique teams worked fine for people involved with a single project, but for those collaborating on and leading multiple projects, keeping track of the differences in tools was a challenge. Junko was looking for a way to painlessly unite all engineers and designers under one solution. She was clearly hearing from engineers, "We want to use Git!" Setting up a Git repository was an easy prospect, but Junko could see that to work together, the company was enduring a lot of pain to do the right thing—social coding.

One platform, one directory

Before starting this project, each developer did his or her own work. But now, we collaborate with each other very often, and don't hesitate to ask or share. This motivates me a lot.
—Junko Okuda

GitHub Enterprise emerged as the best way to review source code and improve product quality while maintaining security and simple account management. Engineers were more than willing to support Junko in introducing GitHub Enterprise to the organization, making the migration a no-brainer. Everyone knew that GitHub Enterprise would improve CyberAgent's development environment. Junko launched and led CyberAgent's migration to GitHub Enterprise, eventually gathering more than 700 projects under one simple directory hierarchy.

And it didn't end with code—designers at CyberAgent have embraced GitHub Enterprise for sharing and collaborating on their many design assets as well. Using GitHub's image diffing features, designers can compare two versions of the same image side-by-side, making quick work of comparisons between very detailed images.

When implementing new tools, it's best to give users the opportunity for hands-on training and simple, easy-to-understand documentation. No matter how great a system you're implementing, it won't make sense without support.

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