A Personal History of Collaboration: Soloing, Pairing, Mobbing, Cube Farms, and Pipe Fires

Jeff Langr

Summary:

Pair programming is the practice you love to hate! It's been nearly twenty years since Extreme Programming promoted pair programming as a collaborative practice, and it's still here. And if you thought that was bad, now there's mobbing, where the entire team works together on one thing at a time. Does that seem nuts? Yet we often hear teams say, "We go faster because we are mobbing." In this anecdote-heavy session, you'll hear Jeff Langr's history of working through various models for collaboration (or not) across the past several decades, including pairing, solo programming, and mobbing. He'll show you his office blueprints to help put you in his shoes and understand what made for the ups and downs of each model. You'll learn tips for success with each model, pitfalls to watch out for, and Jeff's take on why mobbing or pairing might help us go faster. Come to have your preconceptions busted and learn why you should try a different programming model—or give it a second chance.

Presenter Bio:

Jeff Langr has spent more than half his thirty-five-year career successfully building and delivering software using agile methods and techniques. He’s also helped countless other development teams do the same by coaching and training through his company, Langr Software Solutions Inc. In addition to being a contributor to Uncle Bob’s book Clean Code, Jeff is the author of five books on software development: Modern C++ Programming with Test-Driven Development, Pragmatic Unit Testing, Agile in a Flash (with Tim Ottinger), Agile Java, and Essential Java Style. He is also on the technical advisory board for the Pragmatic Bookshelf and has written an extensive number of blog entries and articles over the years. Jeff has lived in Colorado Springs for more than twenty years.