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2016 Agile Manc - A Journey in Mob Programming

2016 Agile Manc - A Journey in Mob Programming

Summer 2015, and a highly skeptical team tries out mob programming for a week to see what all the fuss is about.

Months later, and they wouldn't work any other way. This session follows the life of a team at Advanced Legal who get all their work done together, at the same time, on a single computer.

They've found it gives them more discipline to do the right things, more freedom to do what they need to do, to work with the right people and learn and continuously improve as individuals and as a team.

It's not always been an easy ride, but the transformation has been overwhelmingly positive and built a strong, fearless, self-organising team in a short space of time.

Joe Lloyd

May 13, 2016
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Transcript

  1. Getting Started Watched Woody Zuill’s ‘Mob Programming - A Whole

    Team Approach’ The experiment: • One week • Mob everything • Claim a space, set up projectors and one dev machine • Practice the mechanics • Retrospective at the end of the week
  2. The Basics Keep a strict driver/navigator divide Rotate at short

    regular intervals Avoid the urge to split up when you first hit a problem Explore problems on the same screen Have kindness, consideration and respect for your team members.
  3. Team-Building Mobbing brought our new team together very quickly We

    agreed on a shared set of values and practices Learning and cross-pollination of skills was built into the work Spread the strain - bad days, illnesses, absences Progress was bumpy but we grew stronger together
  4. Growing Pains Mobbing felt awkward and counterintuitive at first Learning

    to not separate was hard and stretched us, but worth it Effectiveness came after deliberate practice, building expertise Felt a lot like learning TDD - still learning, no skill ceiling in sight
  5. All Change Team swap New team have been mobbing …

    differently?? Tough to adjust Forced me to examine my experience - what is essential?
  6. Communication Make the work fit inside your heads Keep lists

    - defer prioritisation and consensus Talk about the same thing! Avoid prejudging - what is ‘too slow’? What is required? Draw diagrams, make spikes - concrete things, working software Timebox crazy ideas - can agree to 30 minutes, not so much undefined
  7. Discovery Mobbing makes talking easier and writing code harder Writing

    code is awful! Avoid where possible! Fastest work is work not done - effectiveness over busyness Replace debates with dialectic - hypothesise, experiment, discover Discovery is first class work
  8. Retrospectives Daily ceremonies gave room to breathe, address tensions Evolved

    slowly to drop the ceremony Moved towards micro-spectives - rule of three Keeping lists is important Continuous improvement - decide what we want to do, constant small tweaks, stop hitting yourself
  9. When not to Mob Splitting up when learning to mob

    almost always was a mistake People revert to old habits - communication drops Okay for trivial stuff - little discussion, mostly hitting the keyboard Positive results from splitting for small spikes then replaying findings together Elasticity!