How you can accelerate knowledge-transfer with cross-location MOB-programming

Driver and Navigator

In a LeSS adoption the teams self-organised some time ago into end-to-end feature teams. Some of these teams need to find ways to share knowledge on a tool called PEGA. One of the PEGA experts approached us with the question on how to do this. We suggested to facilitate a session to introduce them to MOB-programming. After the session they should be able to do more mobbing by themselves if they think it was valuable.

Preparation

The subject matter expert had no idea what MOB programming actually looks like. I explained: “The primary goal of mobbing is to share knowledge. The principal idea is to use one computer to do all the work on. There will be two roles: a driver and a navigator. It’s like a rally car team: the navigator tells the driver where to go. When programming, the driver operates the computer keyboard and the navigator is the knowledgeable person who will tell the driver what to code. The code must go through two people’s heads. The team members will rotate to occupy the driver seat every 5 minutes. When you operate in the role of the navigator, ensure that you communicate respectfully. Remember the goal for the driver is to learn. Accommodate the level of abstraction of your instructions to the level of experience of the driver.”