Mob Programming and Intent


We’ve sometimes had problems on our Mob where the driver just starts doing things that they weren’t asked to do.

I think that this happens for a few reasons. 

  1. The driver just reverts to habit, and just writes code because that’s what they’re used to. 
  2. We’re doing something fairly repetitive, and the driver just carries on with the task. 
  3. The team are stuck, and no-one has any ideas, so the driver uses the computer to try and find a solution. 
In both cases, it can be frustrating for the rest of the Mob. 

Now, I recently read the excellent book “Turn The Ship Around”, and I loved the idea of stating intent, rather than asking for permission. 

We discussed it in our mob, and it seemed like a good idea. 

So now, the driver is allowed to act in their own, as long as they state their intent. “I intend to look on Stack Overflow for something similar”, or “I intend to carry on tidying up the other functions while we’re here”. 

The mob can then allow this, or propose a different task instead, as they see fit. 

And it all works quite smoothly :-)

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