
How We Work: Swarms [video] - imosquera
http://engineering.sharethis.com/post/130159480299/how-we-work-swarms
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ColinWright
Oh how I hate this. Hard to hear, no subtitles, 24 minutes long, and I have
_no_ idea beforehand whether it will be interesting. The only clue I have is
that someone here on HN thought it would be.

Is there a transcript? Summary? Abstract? Anything? I'm not going to sit
through several minutes of hard-to-hear video just to find out if there might
be some value.

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Nadya
I skimmed the video by listening to 20 or so seconds every few minutes of the
video, so forgive me if my take away missed out on something. This is what I
got from it:

Change workflow from string (Person A takes Issue A, Person B takes Issue B,
Person C takes Issue C) to a "swarm" (Issue A taken by People [A-C], Issue B
taken by People [D-F])

Multiple eyes pass the code = more bugs caught. Social pressure to be working
on the project (group of 4-5 people). If things fall too far behind, revert to
"string" method of each person working on an individual issue.

Results in less time wasting (FB/Twitter) due to social pressure. Some study
said a pair of 2 is the most productive, but they feel the social pressure is
too high in that scenario, hence group of 4-5 to relieve social pressure while
maintaining the benefits of collaborative work.

Not worth the time. Not all that interesting. Mostly saying stuff that many
"lean startups" have learned. That pair coding increases productivity. They
just applied this to their queue instead of only new features or something.

~~~
imosquera
Nadya - Thanks the summarizing the video! You mentioned that other lean
startups have done this, could you point me to other lean startups working in
this methodology? I'd love to learn how others are approaching this idea.

I've also found while many accept that pair-programming increases productivity
it's rarely implemented. The video we created outlines an approach that is an
alternative to pair-programming but maintains many (if not more) of the
benefits.

