[rmk]

> We have our own take on exactly how we do it, but the gist is that all our software engineers are in a video conference with each other as much as possible and focus on a single task.

This is a pretty fucked up way of working. People can't get anything useful done if there is a mob of people on a zoom call. It's just a talkfest or more likely an opportunity for 1-2 people to dominate the conversation while the other folks tune out.

Even pair programming is a ridiculous waste of time a lot of the time, but this 'mob programming' seems to multiply the waste while achieving nothing much more useful than pairing. At least with pairing, the two people involved are building a relationship.

[elguyosupremo]

I've found it to be quite the opposite. It's also important to note that mob programming recommends rotating who is "driving" the session, so we change who is sharing every 15 minutes.

I don't think this approach scales to more than a team of 4-6 people but we've been able to forge strong bonds on our team, solve complex problems (in domain definition, actual code, ci/cd issues, and more) in ways that the entire team feels are appropriate and while also keeping the whole team abreast of all the changes. We get far more done than we used to and we've successfully onboarded several new team members.

[quickthrower2]

I think the trick is that instances of being stuck will tend to zero as you get more brainpower at the problem, or even the watchers spotting mistakes. And what I love about pairing is the code review comes for free. I hate being sent 1000 line change PRs blind :-0