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CODING TEAM THEORY: Hoarding the Code ๐Ÿฟ

ยท coding,team

This pattern refers to the work behavior of repeatedly working privately๐Ÿ” and hoarding all work in progress to deliver one giant pull request at the end of the sprint.

The more an individual saves up their work, the less they collaborate with others.

Working alone is inherently riskier than working with others.๐Ÿ˜Ÿ

Submitting work all at once can lead to lower quality code โ€” both from:

โ€•๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐’๐ฎ๐›๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ซโ€™s standpoint (๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘œ ๐‘‘๐‘–๐‘‘๐‘›โ€™๐‘ก ๐‘โ„Ž๐‘’๐‘๐‘˜ ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘–๐‘Ÿ ๐‘ค๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘˜ ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘”๐‘’๐‘ก ๐‘“๐‘’๐‘’๐‘‘๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘˜ ๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘Ž๐‘™ ๐‘š๐‘–๐‘ ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘๐‘ ), andย 

โ€•๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐‘๐ž๐ฏ๐ข๐ž๐ฐ๐ž๐ซโ€™s perspective (๐‘คโ„Ž๐‘œ ๐‘™๐‘–๐‘˜๐‘’๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘‘๐‘œ๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘›โ€™๐‘ก โ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘’๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ข๐‘”โ„Ž ๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘š๐‘’ ๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘’๐‘›๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘”๐‘ฆ ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘Ž๐‘‘๐‘’๐‘ž๐‘ข๐‘Ž๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘–๐‘’๐‘ค ๐‘Ž๐‘™๐‘™ ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘Ž๐‘ก ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘‘๐‘’).

๐‡๐จ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ซ๐ž๐œ๐จ๐ ๐ง๐ข๐ณ๐ž ๐ข๐ญ

Large and infrequent commits can be a sign that the engineer is working privately until their project is finished,ย 

and then submitting their work all at once.

๐–๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐จ

Above all else, be compassionate.๐Ÿค—

Odds are, youโ€™ve recognized this pattern right before or just after the end of a sprint,

so these engineers are likely tired, stressed, and worn out.๐Ÿ˜ฉ

Make sure they get the time and space they need to recover from delivering such a big payload.

This can be great timing for an impromptu and informal 1:1.๐Ÿ—ฃ

Bring up the topic of team collaboration, and how saving work until itโ€™s completed leaves little room for learning from others throughout the process. ๐Ÿ’ก