The Mob Mentality Show

Extreme Programming and Mob Programming go together like peanut butter and jelly. However, have you ever joined an ensemble that was not doing extreme programming? How did you handle it? What reactions were helpful? What reactions were not so helpful? Join Chris and Austin as they discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly for tactics in regards to joining a mob not doing XP. They share experiences on transparency with non-utopia ensembles including emotional shock and recovery in the midst of...

After having a good time mob programming with introductory roles like driver/navigator, what are some examples of "turning up the good" even more? What are unique ways to help people in the ensemble grow? What mobbing tactics can you employ to improve the product in very particular ways? Picking up from where they left off last time, come join Chris and Austin having another fantastic time playing the Mob Programming Role Playing Game with Lisa Crispin, Joe Justice, and Willem Larsen. This...

Is mob programming a group of people watching one person type? Just a driver and a bunch of watchers? If not, what are some examples of things to do in the ensemble? What roles amplify learning, contribution, continuous improvement, and flow efficiency for all? How can people learn in a safe environment how to take on these mob roles? Come see the Mob Programming Role Playing Game in action with Chris, Austin, Lisa Crispin, Joe Justice, and Willem Larsen as they focus on role levels 1 and...

Ever been on a team that pulled off a big jump in innovation? What things made the quantum leap possible? What helped the team overcome any perceived risk in going for it? Join Chris and Austin as they share stories and thoughts on "Taking Risks... Safely." First, they talk about following the Scout Rule for 1% gains vs. large improvement leaps. Second, they explore mob psychology in regards to risk and safety nets. Then they discuss making learning and experimentation easy with a limited...

When coaching, when to make it easy? When to let it be hard? How can these two seemingly diametrically opposed objectives work together? Come join the conversation with Chris and Austin as they brainstorm to try to figure out the "The Coaching Paradox." First, they share about the benefits of making a great environment where it is easy to do good things (e.g., systems thinking, classical culture shaping, etc.). Second, they talk about the pros of developing the ability to do good things...

Imagine you are put in a leadership position at a new organization. You immediately see many problems and areas for improvement in the system. What are some of the first things that you do? What are some things that you resist doing? Join Chris and Austin as they discuss influencing organizational change from the top/middle vs. the bottom. After Chris talks about avoiding the corporate antibody response, he shares his experiences on applying the "Center, Enter, Turn" principles. Next they...

For software, what things lead to excellence and continuous delivery? For teams, what is conducive to innovation? To people speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, mistakes, and taking interpersonal risk? Come join Chris Lucian and Austin Chadwick at this Q&A session on "High Quality, High Release Frequency, High Psychological Safety" as they share from a #MobProgramming perspective. Stemming from that foundation, then Chris and Austin pivot to these specific questions from the...

What would happen if your team kept working on its current production tasks, but switched the top priority to learning while doing so? What if this flip would not only include learning facilitation excellence but also would include coaching, technical, and product excellence as well? What would the short term impact be? What effects would be seen in the mid to long term? Join Chris and Austin as they have a fantastic discussion with Joel Tosi and Dion Stewart on "Dojos and Coaching for...

Ever been in an org or team where it feels like entropy reigns supreme? After some improvements, have you seen things gradually decline back into disorder and old habits? Join Chris and Austin as they discuss "Overcoming the Groan Zone, Bad Habits, and Entropy" with Mark Pearl. First, we hear Mark's ensemble journey with tech tourism, and then we talk about tools for getting past the groan zone in a new mob. Next, we brainstorm on how to handle reverting to old habits and entropy. This...

What is the reflection rhythm on your team? How about your team's refactoring rhythm? How do the two interplay? Join Chris and Austin as they discuss "Reflection & Refactoring Rhythm" with Giorgio Sironi and Kevin Rutherford. After Giorgio and Keven share about the retro cadence in their ensembles and their reflection prompts, we jump into "tracer bullets" on all the things. Lastly, we discuss the "when to refactor Spidey Sense" and "Test Driven Bulldozing." Video and Show Notes:...

Ever suffered through a traditional training session? What about it made it painful? On the other hand, ever came out a learning session refreshed and ready to apply new skills? What was the game changer that really elevated the session? Join Chris and Austin as they have a great time with Ted M. Young discussing traditional training vs. learning ensembles. Ted shares his journey through many different styles of training including his recent remote discoveries leading to learning with...

When have you seen teams be the most effective? Standing teams? Or, just-in-time teams? Instead of forming long-lived teams around a product, a domain, or a component, what would it look like for a team to self-organize around a thin-sliced full-stack task? Join Chris and Austin as they discuss the innovative practice of "Task Force Driven Development" (TFDD) with Steve Bishop. Come hear what happens when concepts from lean software development, domain driven design, and the mythical man...

Is laziness in software development good or bad? How about a lack of focus? When is it good for a system to favor short attention spans? When is it not so good? Join Chris and Austin as they have a lively discussion with Dustin Thostenson on the topic of "Clear & Simple." They first dive into learning by doing, katas, understanding others, and being understood. Then they not only explore the paradoxes involved in laziness and focus but also share about how those things tie into improving...

Heard of dedicated learning time but never experienced it yourself? Curious what people actually do during this mystical time? Join Chris and Austin as they share about what goes on in dedicated learning time. They not only give examples of some activities they have seen (e.g., solo vs. group learning), but they also share what they are doing in dedicated learning time right now. Topics also covered include learning how to learn and the interplay between production work and dedicated...

If silos are problematic for technical knowledge, are they also problematic for product knowledge? Should product experimentation, decisions, and prioritization be owned by the "single wringable neck"? Or can it be owned by a team? Join Chris and Austin as they share about "Collective Product Ownership." After they discuss the distinction between a siloed feature factory and a shared feature discovery shop, Austin shares a collective product ownership mob case study on an IoT cloud...

"Production Deployments" …does this phrase strike fear into your soul? Or Joy? Stress or Peace? What things are conducive to dreadful delivery? What things are conducive to delightful delivery? Join Chris and Austin as they discuss "The Joy of Continuous Delivery" with Dave Farley. Dave not only shares about the Zen of Continuous Delivery (CD) but also shares about barriers to CD, TDD/BDD & CD, small steps, and CD coaching. They also discuss Modern Software Engineering (in a hyper-agile...

Is Theory of Constraints and Throughput Accounting in opposition to Lean and Agile thinking? How about with Mob Programming? Or, are the relationships more synergistic? Join Chris and Austin as worlds collide in this discussion with Daniel Doiron on "Throughput Accounting for Knowledge Work." It starts off with summaries of Theory of Constraints, Throughput Accounting, The Goal, Brown Money, and Green Money. Then they dive into Special vs. Common Causes and compare/contrast it all with...

What things make a career in tech unattainable for some? What would make a career in tech accessible to more people? Once someone has started their code journey, what things help a career flourish? Join Austin and Chris as they discuss with Mike Roberts making tech careers accessible and equitable at Creating Coding Careers. Mike not only shares about the mission and results of https://cccareers.org/ but he also shares many aspects of his "playbook" for enhancing and enriching the early...

You may have heard about Mob Programming from a professional developer's perspective. But have you heard about it first hand from a college student's perspective? Join Chris and Austin as they ask college students Jack Wei, Joel Plotnik, and Alec Arce about their ensemble experiences with other students and with professional engineers. Jack, Joel, and Alec share about what they liked and what they did not like in their weekly mobbing sessions. Lastly, as they reach the end of their college...

How did you learn to communicate well? How do you teach emotional intelligence and tact to other team members? What are ways teams can interact with others where it feels like it's coming from a team and not just an individual? Come join Chris and Austin as they share how they write emails and learn/teach communication skills in an ensemble. Flow efficiency patterns and anti-patterns are covered. Email "refactoring" stories are shared. Come hear how collective ownership not only applies to...