Ask HN: Have you tried mob programming? Mob programming, the art of multiple programmers collaborating on one computer and still being efficient. Have you tried it and did it work out? By trying I mean doing it on production code for more than one day. |
The benefits that people are claiming I find are true, so far. It’s different, but it has almost eliminated all lead and wait time for us which I consider to be a huge obstacle for effectiveness.
I got convinced by The book The Art of Agile Development (https://programmingbooks.dev/#the-art-of-agile-development) where he describes mob programming as an easy mode for collaboration.
We used the book Code with the Wisdom of the Crowd (https://programmingbooks.dev/more/#code-with-the-wisdom-of-t...) as a guide to learn of to do mob programming.
But otherwise, why do you think it’s so bad?
In a recent "agile" project we formed a group of 5 people, 3 of which took on the software dev task and the result was fantastic.
Either way, it's just a job and as long as you're behaving lawfully, there are no real consequences for you if you make poor decisions as a group. The project may or may not succeed, but at least you had fun, right?
Some people thrive, some people tolerate it, and some people consider it hell.
But I am curious what was it that made your productivity fall, and what didn’t you like about it?
May I also ask how was introduced and used? And why did your company introduce it?
I think the opposite, why turn a group activity into solo activities?
Mob programming doesn't mean you can't work solo or in pairs sometimes when it is well suited for the task.