Exploring Success Factors and Practices for Mob Programming: Extraction From MLR and Empirical Study

Abstract

Mob Programming (MP) is an emerging, relatively new, and unexplored programming technique that is becoming increasingly popular and receiving attention in the software industry. It is a collaborative programming approach where the entire development team works together on a single task. This study explores the success factors (SFs) and their implementation practices for the effective use of MP in the software industry. The research was conducted in two phases: First, a multivocal literature review (MLR) analyzed formal and gray literature (GL), reviewing 76 primary studies to identify SFs and their implementation practices for adopting MP. In the second phase, an empirical survey was conducted, involving 106 software industry experts from 30 countries, to validate the MLR findings. The study identified 12 SFs, among which four factors, “professional communication and team collaboration,” “skills and wills,” “proper feedback sessions,” and “self-organized, self-motivated, and cooperative teams” were ranked as critical success factors (CSFs). Similarly, 126 implementation practices were discovered for the implementation of the identified SFs. The findings suggest that empirical methods are commonly used in MP studies and interest in MP has grown significantly over the past decade. The survey confirmed that the identified SFs are prevalent across projects and organizations of varying sizes. These results offer valuable insights to enhance developers' competence and promote the successful implementation of the MP in the software industry.