Learning in the open - mobprogramming

One of the best things about mob programming (#mobprogramming on twitter) is the way that the team shares learning.

Our team recently worked on a tool to remove unused AWS stacks, dedicating quite a few lunchtimes to the cause. We decided it would be a great opportunity to try some mob programming, as it was a project that we were all excited about.

In the process we

• Learnt some emacs
• Learnt about using the Serverless framework (AWS lambda under the hood) for the first time
• Worked out how we were going to test our application
• Familiarised ourselves with recursion and promises in javascript
• Came up against deployment and runtime problems

While each of these could have been done solo, mob programming gave us the opportunity to:

• Talk the problems through, coming up with better design
• Get comfortable asking for explaination when we're unclear - showing that we don't know it all
• Bring something new to the table that other people don't know - even if we've just found it ourselves
• Teach others
• Share the joy of seeing something working that we've worked on so closely together

One of the biggest benefits is individuals showing they don't know everything. Often as software developers we suffer from imposter syndrome, but just exposing that we're all learning can encourage a better culture where people are happy being vulnerable - where they feel they can ask questions without judgement.

Have you tried mob programming? What do you think are the benefits? Drawbacks?

Stand up

Danielle on my Desk
Originally uploaded by riebschlager

A couple of weeks ago I experimented with a standing desk, which meant dragging my monitors onto a shelf, putting my keyboard up higher and generally shuffling my desk about. It wasn't to be a permanent solution, but more to see if I thought it would be worth getting a permanent setup.

The first couple of days were pretty painful, it's been a while since I've stood up all day, but after a weekend I was feeling good. I felt like I had a lot more focus and didn't waste as much time on facebook and twitter, which was nice to feel that I was getting more done. I think it's also great for programmers, as pair programming would work well as opposed to having a corner sitting desk (which is what I currently work at), allowing better access to swap the keyboard and improved screen visibility.

Unfortunately my wrists weren't a big fan of the awkward position that I'd placed my keyboard in - without a solid desk to rest on they just started to flare up. So, I'm back sitting down waiting for my wrists to recover, and hopefully get my desk setup properly.

If you're interested in standing desks, Lifehacker is a great place to check out to start with.

Do you have a non-standard workplace? How did you make it happen? Does your workplace encourage you to work in a way that helps you work best, or do they want you to just sit there and stick to the standard way of doing things?

Where does your seat sit?

1-12-10 Another Day in the Cube
Originally uploaded by Patric Woessner

At work today, we had a bit of a chat about our physical work environment. Currently we've got an open plan setup happening, everyone faces into their corner of the workspace, and we've got space for a whiteboard. One of the issues with the current setup is that pair programming and code reviewing is a bit hard - trying to fit 2 people into a corner doesn't really work very well, and we want to start doing more code reviews to up the quality of our work.

I know that some people are big advocates of the 'everyone get's an office' idea, and have been reading Joel Spolsky's blog - particularly about office space. I think it'd be great to have my own office, but we don't really have the space, so we're trying to think about how we can work better in the space that we've got.

One idea is to have a large table that we all work at in the middle of the area, with whiteboards around the outside so we can draw and discuss ideas. Another possibility is to all work around the edge of the area, facing the wall, but not have anyone sitting in the corners - which will help with pairing and collaboration. A space would be reserved for a whiteboard, and we could wheel in another whiteboard in and out when we needed.

Anyway, hopefully over the next couple of months we can figure out a way to work better together, which may include a redesign of our physical work environment.

How do you work best with your team? Do you sit near each other? How does working remotely affect your collaboration?

Pair programming

Originally uploaded by ThaRainbow.

A while ago my colleague and I started work on a new project so we decided to do some pair programming, which was the first time I had worked like this. My colleague, having worked with pairing before at a previous job, took the lead. We'd been talking about using agile methodologies for a while, and thought it was a good opportunity to have a go.

At first, it was pretty awkward, as neither of us were overly good at communicating our coding plans, so we'd often wait till the other nutted out a bit of an idea, and then talked it over. We tried writing tests first, which was pretty successful, but once again, trying to figure where the other was going was pretty hard work.

We only worked together for a few days, and then got split to work on separate projects, but I would love to try  it again.

A couple of things that I found:

• Pairing is humbling - if you don't know something, it becomes pretty obvious fast. 
• Ideas are up for grabs - no one is going to be right all the time - you've gotta be prepared to put your ideas out there, and be prepared to talk them over and admit that you aren't always right
• Great collaboration - although it's hard, it's a great way to learn and discuss ideas. It makes you work hard to communicate effectively - which is a great skill to generally have. 
• Promotes openness - I find the way I like to work is on my own, but being pushed to work with others and be transparent is quite liberating, and it means you aren't the one source of all information.

How do you go working with others? If it's software, have you tried paring? If you're not a developer, what are some ways that you've been forced to work with others that have been surprisingly beneficial?