Mobodoro

On our mob, we have started using the “Mobodoro” technique, which I picked up from Willem Larsen at Hunter. 

The idea is based on the “Pomodoro” technique, where you do 25 minutes of solid work, then take a five minute break. And repeat. 

But with Mobodoro, we have a couple of minutes to plan, then we do repeat mob rotations of 2 or three minutes, adding up to 25 minutes. Then we do a quick retrospective on the previous 25 minutes, have a quick break, and then repeat. 

And for the break, we have a rule that we have to leave the mobbing area. Even if we just walk a few feet and back. 

The retrospectives have been great. Often we have nothing. Because we’re only retrospecting on the previous half hour. But quite often we find something small we can change: a better way of using our whiteboard; a new chair; changing the mob rotation time; buying some Lego to keep track of our work. 

The day seems to go much more smoothly, and at a much more sustainable pace. Two or three minutes break every half hour has an amazing effect!

Altogether, it seems like a great way to roll up the whole Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle into a half-hour repeatable process :-)

Comments

  1. Nick GoedeOctober 4, 2019 at 8:33 AM

    I have done the break taking a lot with mobbing but haven't tried the mini-retros. I will keep that in mind.

    ReplyDelete

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