The power of the mob
Imagine your entire dev team, gathered around one computer, all working on your project. It sounds like chaos, but it’s a brilliant way of delivering high quality software, fast.
Mob programming is used a lot at Headforwards. It’s a chance to apply a whole team’s ideas and knowledge to one project – and because they test as they go, any bugs can be instantly squashed.
Mobbing keeps everyone on the same page. Everyone agrees how the software will be coded, issues are picked up on fast, and we’re quicker to spot potential traps in the process.
Clients are welcome
Mobbing gets even better when clients are involved, whether they’re visiting Headforwards in person, or videoconferencing in from their site.
The whole team comes to know each other, and everyone feels aligned and motivated to deliver a great product. It all makes for a strong working partnership – something Headforwards strives to build with every client.
Most of our mobs include developers from the client’s end. It’s much easier to collaborate and solve problems as they appear.
A win-win for everyone
Once a team tries mobbing, they often find they really enjoy working in such a collaborative way. Everyone at Headforwards has a specialist skill – whether it’s front-end development, database coding or web services – and mobbing means that knowledge gets shared.
It’s a win-win: the client gets great quality software fast, and the devs and testers enjoy working together to create something of real value.
There’s a great social side to mobbing – it helps you learn about your team as people. And in the long run, it helps us grow as developers to produce better software, more quickly, with fewer issues.