Mob programming

Survey results on mobbing

Brent Miller:

I put together a mobbing survey at New Relic, which concluded that mobbing is only sometimes effective. It seems to work best when there are a few ground rules in place:

1. Mobbing is a tool in the team’s toolbox, not a way of life. Corollary: mobbing is best applied when the team is figuring out a hard problem, or there is a strong need to maximize shared learning.
2. Each mobbing session has a clearly defined goal
3. The team has working agreements designed to prevent the mob from amplifying social imbalances (ie, prevent the loud voices from crowding out the rest of the team)

As one person said, mobbing is the ultimate test of a team’s health. Any off social dynamics will be magnified, not resolved, by a mobbing practice. Keep in mind these are results from a particular engineering culture, and your mileage may vary.