Swarma Corner

Our WFH Little Virtual Workspace

Swarma Corner ??? What is that ?? This has been the immediate response we got most of the time from people who heard this for the first time. I agree, its bit confusing. Good news is , following paragraphs explain what it is.. Bad news is, you will have to read it all to know what it means :)

Where it All Started…

This all started after our scrum master introduced us the agile concept called swarming. Basically, Swarming is an approach used by Agile teams to collaborate on a high-priority single work item (ex. story/task) until completion. If you want to learn more details about swarming, well, google is your friend :) Im not going to tell about swarming concept, but about a new working culture we derived from swarming concept.

We did swarming for few user stories/tasks in few sprints. We had positive results. We were able to successfully complete the tasks that were estimated as rather complex or requires more effort, with less hassle, less time, more productively, more efficiently and more accurately. Resolving issues and other dependencies became easier.

These were done in add hoc manner. The person who works on the ticket schedules meetings to discuss and execute the each task collaboratively.

From Ad Hoc Swarming to Permanent Swarma Corner…

As the team realised the benefits of this approach, we wanted to continue this as a team and have a permanent space dedicated for swarming. During a Sprint Planning, this idea was popped up and our Product Owner quickly created a calendar event along with a Meeting Space so that it appears on our team’s chat application permanently. Either we suck at naming things or we are the best at naming things :D . Since it was meant for swarming , we ended up naming it as Swarma Corner. Which could also be meant for a place eating Swarma(Shaorma).

What do we do there…

This Swarma Corner became our little virtual working space as people most of the time worked from home. Whenever we want to do something together we join Swarma Corner and most of the time someone shares the screen and does the job. All others contribute to it. We have been using this space for whole lot of things. Below are few things I remember.

• Troubleshooting
• Brainstorming and Designing
• Technical Discussions and Learnings
• Knowledge Sharing
• Coding and Code Reviewing
• Aligning (finalising names for resources is fun :) )
• Chit-Chatting and having fun

What Swarma Corner has given us so far…

From the very first sprint we started doing this, in every retrospective session , team had positive remarks on this. There has been plenty of benefits we received as a team from this little working norm.

In Swarma Corner, When verifying something, you’ve got more than two eyes, when designing or solving something , you’ve got more than one brain :)

• Solutions were designed and things were planned in a robust way with minimum faults.
• Ensured following the best practices and standards.
• Technical discussions became more broader with various inputs from multiple people.
• Root causes were identified with minimum time of troubleshooting as those were collaborative efforts.
• Since whole team was able to provide input interactively, things were done and dusted during the session itself. For an example, naming resources.
• Everybody became more synced/updated about overall solution and development progress.
• Sub components of overall solution became more aligned and synced through out designing and development phases.
• Doing individual work after alignment and discussions in Swarma Corner helped less iterations as well as build more robust and practical solutions.
• Productivity and Efficiency in other project related tasks like Sprint Planning etc were increased as the whole team had the big picture.
• High quality outputs/results for the tasks/stories.
• Knowledge was shared then and there while completing the tasks. No need for separate knowledge transfer sessions.
• Overall knowledge of the team got levelled up. Colleagues learned a lot from each other.
• Team got well bonded, more energised and work from home became more fun.

Why Swarma Corner worked for us…

I should mention here that it could have been just another meeting space if not for this awesome bunch of people in the team. How team embraced this working norm and became part of this Swarma Corner is amazing.

It worked because everyone in the team,

• Was fun to work with.
• Was open to collaborate.
• Shared same work ethic.
• Was ready to improve own-self and share knowledge.
• Was passionate about what they were doing.
• Was not offended when ideas were challenged.
• Took ownership and responsibility.
• Believed in each other.
• Understood and supported each other.

When we look back at last few months, we have completed a hell lot of work as a team. As a team we have been able to shift our gears a bit and move in a high pace than usual managing our work load and work life balance while enjoying the work we do everyday. Team has got several recognitions and compliments recently from different parties involved in the project. I believe Swarma Corner would definitely get some credits for that.

After the Corona Pandemic most of the teams started working from home. Having a team space dedicated to work as a team would bring tons of benefits as I have seen in past few months. If you dont have one already, please do have one. And start using it productively. Im pretty sure it will give your team some amazing benefits. You will see the transformation of your team as well as improvements of the outcomes :) Good Luck building solutions !!!