Leadership is the process of creating an environment in which people become empowered.” – Gerald M. Weinberg

From the Principles behind the Agile Manifesto: “Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.”

Let’s explore the possibilities of these leadership ideas, and how one team found their own path of self-organization within an environment where everyone is empowered.

Mob Programming is similar to pair programming but with more folks. I think of it as “All the brilliant people working on the same thing, at the same time, in the same place, and on the same computer.” It might sound a bit extreme, but we have found it to be a powerful way to interact and remain productive and highly effective in a sane and sustainable manner.

I’ll discuss our “real life” experiences, cover some of the challenges, show “how it works”, share some benefits, and provide some insights and reflections after doing this for almost 3 years.

About the speaker:

Woody Zuill has been programming computers for 30 years, and currently works as an Agile Coach and Application Development Manager for a company that makes high quality and innovative irrigation products.

Over the last 15+ years he has worked as an Agile Coach, Application Development Manager, Trainer, and Extreme Programmer. He believes that code must be simple, clean, and maintainable so that we can realize the Agile promise of Responding to Change, and that we must constantly Inspect and Adapt.

He has a passion for bringing code that is hard to maintain back into a manageable state, Clean Code, teamwork, and Mob Programming, and does workshops and speaks at conferences and user groups on these topics whenever he gets a chance.