What is going right: Mob Programming Benefits (Part 1)
I want to call this blog post What is going right: Mob Programming Benefits (Part 1) because I know there are and will be more things going right because of Mob Programming. As of right now, I have been mob programming for just under a year. So for part one, I wanted to explain two of the major factors that are going right in mob programming.
- Idea sharing leading to learning
- Building strong teams
There is so much more that comes with mob programming, but I want to stick to just two for now. I plan to expand this list greatly but just want short and sweet post for now.
Idea sharing leading to learning
If you are not learning, you are falling behind. Learning should never be undervalued.
With mob programming, you are learning daily. You have the brains of 3, 4, 5 or more developers all being shared. Woody Zuill's one-sentence explanation of mob programming describes the learning perfectly, "All the brilliant people working on the same thing, at the same time, in the same space, and on the same computer."
All the brilliant minds are developing ideas, they are sharing those ideas with everyone. Even if an idea is not entirely thought out it is shared. With all the other skilled developers around you, something great can be built out of your idea. Sharing ideas to boost learning is one of the biggest things going right with mob programming.
A great feeling I have gotten many times while mob programming has been stating an idea to a solution I had that did not solve the whole solution but only part. As soon as I described the idea to the team other members jumped in being able to solve the pieces I had struggled to solve. I learned how to solve the full solution by presenting my partial idea.
Sharing ideas to boost learning is one of the biggest things going right with mob programming.
Building Strong Teams
I have had some of the strongest and most cohesive work teams due to mob programming. The idea of working with the same people 8 hours a day every day may scare some people. But the safe environment we create at work where ideas, even bad ones, are accepted and thoroughly thought through makes a good team.
By spending so much time with the same people, I learned a lot about them. I was able to learn what specialties they have so I knew where I could get specific knowledge if needed. I have even able to pick up on the idiosyncrasies of individuals, so I knew when the right time to coerce ideas out of them in a safe way was or when to be quiet and let them process ideas in their own head.
Spending so much time with everyone on a team built strong work and even personal relationships. We easily learned about each other and with each other. I know I was nervous in the beginning about spending day after day working together in a team, but it really has been an amazing experience so far that I look forward to every day.
Stay tuned for more short "What is going right" posts.
