Re:The case for pair programming
by latchkey on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @10:00PM
(#18245358)
This 1000 times. It should be the top comment on the page. The desktop setup is crucial. 90% of the time when I ask companies if they do pairing and I ask them to describe the setup, it is two people crowded around one laptop and that never works. I can't imagine watching someone type like that.
I'd add a few other things that help a lot... a very good PM writing stories that pairs can pickup and run with (and a good management tool everyone knows how to use properly, like Pivotal Tracker), a Monday iteration planning meeting, a Friday retrospective (with whiskey!) and ping pong tables to blow off steam, as a pair.
It sounds so cultish meta silly .com programmer... and it is... but it also works really well as long as the majority buys into it.
One way I found to introduce this sort of system into a company is to just start with one pairing station (the computer setup described above). Tell people that when they want to pair, they can use it all they want. My experience is that soon enough, you'll be getting requests for more stations.
I'd add a few other things that help a lot... a very good PM writing stories that pairs can pickup and run with (and a good management tool everyone knows how to use properly, like Pivotal Tracker), a Monday iteration planning meeting, a Friday retrospective (with whiskey!) and ping pong tables to blow off steam, as a pair.
It sounds so cultish meta silly .com programmer... and it is... but it also works really well as long as the majority buys into it.
One way I found to introduce this sort of system into a company is to just start with one pairing station (the computer setup described above). Tell people that when they want to pair, they can use it all they want. My experience is that soon enough, you'll be getting requests for more stations.