043: Relay Race Programming

Working Code

You might think that "programming" is a relatively straightforward concept: take abstract ideas and codify them into lines-of-code (LOC). But, within this broad abstraction, there are a multitude of implementation details. Some engineers love to hunker down and write code inside a metaphorical bubble; mob programmers love to dog-pile on the same machine, blitzing the problem until it's obliterated; and, pair programmers methodically alternate responsibilities between a "driver" and a "navigator" in cooperative pairing sessions.

On today's episode, Carol shares her team's approach to product development which sounds more like "Relay Race Programming." First, her team does some up-front design and planning in order to orient the work. Then, her team divvies up the tasks, processes the work in parallel, and keeps a constant line-of-communication open such that they can unblock each other as soon as issues arise. While this approach takes some getting used to, Carol believes that it has increased her productivity, decreased her Pull-Request review latency, and opened the door to many more mentorship opportunities.

Notes & Links

• Agile Alliance: Pair Programmging
• Agile Alliance: Mob Programming
• Ward Cunningham: Ping-Pong Programming

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With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.