Swarming and mobbing
Swarming / Mobbing Explained
Swarming and Mobbing are collaborative techniques used in software development to accelerate problem-solving, knowledge sharing, and delivery quality.
Swarming
Swarming happens when multiple team members focus collectively on a single work item.
Instead of everyone working independently on different tasks, the team converges on the most important or urgent issue until it is resolved.
- Goal: Reduce cycle time by bringing diverse expertise to one task.
- Example: A critical bug is discovered in production, and developers, testers, and operations all stop other work to solve it together.
Mobbing
Mobbing (or Mob Programming) extends the idea of pair programming to the entire team.
All members work on the same piece of code at the same time, typically using one shared workstation or environment.
- Roles:
- Driver: The person at the keyboard.
- Navigators: Everyone else, guiding, reviewing, and suggesting approaches.
- Goal: Collective code ownership, shared understanding, and higher-quality design.
- Example: A team builds a complex new feature together, continuously discussing, designing, and coding in real time.
Why It Matters
- Speed: Problems are solved faster by pooling knowledge immediately.
- Quality: Continuous feedback reduces defects.
- Learning: Team members upskill each other naturally.
- Alignment: Everyone has the same context, reducing handoff delays.
Both techniques trade off short-term individual productivity for long-term throughput, resilience, and adaptability.