Agile software development embraces change and encourages teams to adapt quickly. One technique that helps Agile teams deliver results faster is swarming.
In swarming, all team members direct their attention and skills to complete a single user story or feature together. The goal of swarming in Agile is to increase productivity and collaboration so high-value features can be implemented quickly.
In this article, we’ll explore the purpose of swarming in Agile, its advantages, potential drawbacks, and tips for making swarming work for your Agile team. You’ll also learn how swarming differs from related practices like mobbing.
What is Swarming in Agile?
Swarming in Agile is a technique where the entire team works together to rapidly complete a single user story or feature.
When a story reaches the top of the Product Backlog, the team will swarm that item by having all available members with the right skills collaborate to finish it.
This means developers, testers, and anyone else with bandwidth focuses their attention on implementing and validating that one story.
The goal is to deliver high-quality results as quickly as possible by directing the team’s collective time and energy. Rather than individuals independently moving through tasks, swarming gets the team operating as a unit to knock out top priority items.
While swarming, team members should remain in constant communication to ensure alignment. The hyper-focused nature of swarming on targeted features enables Agile teams to boost productivity.
Purpose of Swarming in Agile
The purpose of swarming in Agile is to maximize efficiency when working on critical user stories. By rallying the entire team to swarm a high-priority item, you avoid bottlenecks that arise when individuals get out of sync.
Swarming also enhances collaboration and communication between cross-functional team members. The practice keeps everyone focused on delivering a shippable increment of work.
Instead of multitasking across various tasks, swarming directs collective efforts towards moving targeted features to completion. This focused approach gets high-value items done faster.
Advantages of Swarming in Agile
Swarming provides several key advantages that can boost productivity for Agile teams when applied appropriately.
Some advantages of swarming in Agile include:
Accelerated Delivery
With the collective focus of the entire team on a single user story, features can be developed, tested, and validated rapidly. Avoiding delays from cross-functional hand-offs helps unlock speed.
Increased Collaboration
Swarming brings together diverse expertise to implement the story, enhancing communication. Developers collaborate with testers and UX designers closely, improving working relationships.
Avoiding Bottlenecks
When individuals complete tasks separately, some move faster potentially causing bottlenecks. Others must then wait for dependencies before finishing their work. Swarming synchronizes the team’s efforts so no single component lags.
Improved Focus
The hyper-focused energy of swarming avoids productivity losses from task switching. By working as a unit on targeted priority stories, the team minimizes distractions and multitasking.
Higher Quality
With multiple team members reviewing work, you benefit from a broader perspective to identify issues early. Fast remediation during swarming leads to more robust solutions and reduced defects.
Enhanced Morale
Swarming provides a sense of urgency and progress as the team rallies to rapidly complete stories which can boost morale and energize team members.
Challenges of the Agile Swarming Technique
While swarming can accelerate development, the technique also comes with some potential drawbacks:
Too Many Cooks
Having the entire team collaborate on a single user story can sometimes lead to chaos. With so many perspectives involved, it can be difficult to reach alignment on approach.
Limits Multitasking
Some individuals prefer to juggle multiple tasks at once. Swarming requires 100% focus on a single activity, which certain team members may find challenging.
Poor Coordination
For swarming to work, it requires a strong leader who can effectively coordinate the team. Without disciplined coordination, swarming can decrease rather than increase productivity.
Scope Limitations
Swarming works best for tackling large features that require an all-hands approach. It may be overkill for smaller tasks better suited for just a pair or individuals.
Interpersonal Conflicts
With diverse roles suddenly collaborating closely, interpersonal conflicts can emerge. This requires deft handling and management to avoid derailing the swarm.
To mitigate these risks, set expectations upfront and ensure the team stays aligned through constant communication when swarming.
Example of Agile Swarming
Let’s look at an example of when swarming could be used. Say the product owner has prioritized a new feature for an e-commerce site – the ability to save items to a wish list for future purchase.
Rather than assign individual tasks, the Scrum team swarms this user story by having all developers, testers, and UX designers focus together on designing, coding, validating, and releasing the wish list feature.
By swarming the work, they can quickly deliver a high-quality increment that meets the acceptance criteria within the Sprint timeline. This hyper-focused collaboration accelerates the team’s progress compared to tackling the story separately.
The swarm approach provides an efficient way to implement bigger features requiring diverse expertise.
How to Succeed with Agile Swarming
Applying swarming effectively requires planning and discipline. Here are some tips:
- Selecting Stories: Choose larger features or user stories that would benefit from an all-hands approach as swarming works best for sizable efforts.
- Leadership: Ensure there is a strong leader to coordinate the swarm and align the team to maintain productivity.
- Kickoff: Conduct a swarm kickoff meeting to set expectations before beginning focused work as a team.
- Workspace: Collocate the swarm team together with all the tools needed to enable real-time collaboration.
- Commitment: Set the expectation that the team will remain 100% dedicated to the swarm without multitasking.
- Communication: Facilitate ongoing open discussions so information flows freely across the entire swarm.
- Conflict Management: Watch for misalignments or conflicts, addressing them promptly to avoid derailing progress.
With proper planning and commitment, swarming can significantly boost team productivity.
Swarming vs Mobbing in Agile
While swarming and mobbing or mob programming both leverage group dynamics, there are some key differences:
Duration
Swarming involves the team rallying together to complete a single user story or feature and then moving on to the next item.
In contrast, mob programming keeps the team focused on one item continuously from start to finish before moving to the next item.
Team Composition
Swarms can form dynamically as needed from those with availability and suitable skills while the entire team participates together in mob programming.
Workspace
Swarming can be done remotely through collaboration tools if needed, while mob programming requires team members to be co-located physically together.
Flexibility
Swarming provides flexibility to swarm user stories on demand while mob programming requires dedication to a persistent mob working together daily.
While both techniques aim to improve productivity and collaboration, swarming offers more agility in how groups are leveraged.
Conclusion
Swarming enables Agile teams to accelerate development by rallying collective focus on critical user stories. While requiring tighter coordination, a swarm approach boosts productivity through enhanced collaboration, alignment, and urgency.
Teams must ensure swarming is used judiciously for larger features to avoid organizational challenges.
With proper implementation, swarming helps unlock an Agile team’s full potential to deliver high-value capabilities faster for the benefit of customers.
Evaluating when and how to effectively utilize swarming can level up your team’s Agile practice.
