Back in the days before Mob Programming was a thing, there was a way of deliberate practice referred to as Randori. The idea there was pretty much similar to what the mechanics of mobbing are. There would be a pair out of a group working at a time on a problem, and then you'd rotate.
My first Randori experience was a long time before I ever heard someone was working in this "mob programming" style, and on a shallow level, the difference I saw from my first introductions to mob programming was the use of strong style navigation. So the question emerged: is mob programming really just a strong-style Randori?
I'm blogging since being reminded:
Examples popped out: there's such a thing as a pool guard, but it would make no sense to have a tub guard. Pool parties are a thing, but you might argue that a tub party is a very different thing. The physical exercise aspects of pools are non-existent in tubs, you wouldn't really say you swim in a tub.
While it is a fun word game to make one think, it is a good way of illustrating why mob programming is not just a Strong-style randori. What mob programming as Woody Zuill and his team introduced it brings in is hundreds of hours of learning while continuously collaborating, and with that communication some of the problems we see no ways of making go away just vanishing.
Doing things over long time to grow together make it different. Mob Programming is different.
And the same applies to many of the things where we like to say that this "has been around for ever". Test after and test first are essentially different. The things we can do with continuous delivery are essentially different to just continuous integration.
My first Randori experience was a long time before I ever heard someone was working in this "mob programming" style, and on a shallow level, the difference I saw from my first introductions to mob programming was the use of strong style navigation. So the question emerged: is mob programming really just a strong-style Randori?
I'm blogging since being reminded:
Pool is not just a bigger bath tub.Surely, pool is a container with water in it. So is a bath tub. But the things you can do with a pool are significantly different from the things you can do with a bath tub.
Examples popped out: there's such a thing as a pool guard, but it would make no sense to have a tub guard. Pool parties are a thing, but you might argue that a tub party is a very different thing. The physical exercise aspects of pools are non-existent in tubs, you wouldn't really say you swim in a tub.
While it is a fun word game to make one think, it is a good way of illustrating why mob programming is not just a Strong-style randori. What mob programming as Woody Zuill and his team introduced it brings in is hundreds of hours of learning while continuously collaborating, and with that communication some of the problems we see no ways of making go away just vanishing.
Doing things over long time to grow together make it different. Mob Programming is different.
And the same applies to many of the things where we like to say that this "has been around for ever". Test after and test first are essentially different. The things we can do with continuous delivery are essentially different to just continuous integration.
