When you have a newly formed remote team that has to deliver a system in a high stakes environment – including short deadlines, high visibility (especially for failure), limited knowledge of some of the technologies to use, and some hard security and accessibility constraints – remote mob programming might not be at the top of your list of methods to use. Yet, this is what we did to deliver successfully, and to high-quality standards, one of the backend systems used by the COVID-19 app – the covid app used in England and Wales. (Agile Manchester 2023 version)

1. Remote Mob Programming In A
High Stakes Environment
Agile Manchester 2023
Giovanni Asproni
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gasproni/
@gasproni@mastodon.social
@gasproni

2. Mob (Ensemble) Programming
Sisipirate, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

3. Remote Mob Programming
Taken with permission from: https://www.remotemobprogramming.org/

4. Tools

5. The System: SIP Gateway
SIP Gateway Backend systems
NHS COVID-19 App

6. A High Stakes Environment
• Very short, hard, deadlines
• Unstable requirements
• Hard security and accessibility constraints
• High visibility, especially for failure

7. The Team
• Delivery manager
• Technical Lead
• Five developers
• Experts from other teams (part-time)

8. The Team
• Distributed over five countries, and
three timezones
• Members unknown to each other
• Limited experience with some of the
tools

9. Setting The Stage
• Teamwork
• Grades are irrelevant
• What counts is contribution

10. Setting The Stage
• High quality
• Automation
• Four-eyes principle
• Collective ownership
• Collective accountability

11. Why Mob Programming?
• Resilience
• Learning
• Quality

12. Why Mob Programming?
• Less remote work isolation
• Better teamwork
• Fewer bottlenecks

13. What about speed?

14. Making It Work
• Clear, meaningful, goals
• Resources and support
• Psychological safety
• Autonomy
• Authority

15. Making It Work
Delivery Manager and Tech
Lead acting as Firewall and
Gatekeeper.

16. Typical Day
• Virtual standup call
• Join on a virtual mob room (developers)
• Calls with other stakeholders (Delivery
Manager & Tech Lead)

17. Team Issues
• Surprisingly few
• Initially discussed in private
• Quickly, everybody learnt to talk
openly

18. Different Timezones Can Be A Problem
• Especially when only one member
is in one of them
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Timezones_UTC%2B14.png

19. Remote Mobbing Advantages
• You don’t need to book a meeting room
• Mobs can be created on demand
• Access to a wider talent pool
• Nobody can see you doing it

20. Results
• We delivered high quality in
production on time
• We did some overtime
• Happy stakeholders
• Happy team
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1_singapore_national_day_parade_2011_fireworks.jpg
chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

21. And we did it again. With
excellent results

22. Giovanni Asproni
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gasproni/
@gasproni@mastodon.social
@gasproni

23. Resources
• https://www.remotemobprogramming.org/
• https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/experience-reports/mob-
programming-agile2014/
• https://leanpub.com/mobprogramming
• https://sammancoaching.org/
• https://softwareteaming.com/