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do people really pair program in real life? I've never actually seen it

by make3 9y ago

rebeccaskinner 9y ago
Just to counter the other responses here. Yes, and it's even more dreadful than you might imagine if you've never done it. I recommend running fast and far away if you ever find yourself interviewing on a team where pairing is the default assumption.
dudul 9y ago
Yes.
- make3 9y ago
  at which company did you see it, and was it everyone
spinningarrow 9y ago
Yes, and I highly recommend it! source: used to think pair programming was odd until I gave it a proper go.
crdoconnor 9y ago
I find it useful for knowledge transfer. It's a good way of bringing new hires up to speed for the first week / two weeks. If you leave them to their own devices they have a tendency to get overwhelmed and fearful of continually bothering you to ask questions. It's sometimes a more efficient way of building stuff where, for a particular task, you need a whole bunch of knowledge or information that's currently living in somebody else's head. Also, if I'm having one of those days when I feel sluggish having another person there kickstarts me a bit... Defaulting to pair programming for every task - especially when the conditions above are not met is a super inefficient and overbearing way of developing though.
swagtricker 9y ago
Yes. Pair programming as the default for me since 2004. I've done it full time for 8 years at an XP shop (Scrum was added later) w/ 3 teams of 20+ total on 3 different continents. Worked for an Agile consultancy and trained people on Pair Programming and TDD for 4 years. I'm now working for an org that does both Pairing AND mob programming (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_programming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_programming). It takes time, patience, and humility to learn how to do well. I find teams that pair simply build better software that has less bugs. There's literally a book on it to consider (https://www.amazon.com/Pair-Programming-Illuminated-Laurie-Williams/dp/0201745763/ https://www.amazon.com/Pair-Programming-Illuminated-Laurie-W...).
maxxxxx 9y ago
I have done it and it works great if you respect the work and each other. It's a nightmare with people who don't care.

do people really pair program in real life? I've never actually seen it

by make3 9y ago

do people really pair program in real life? I've never actually seen it

Just to counter the other responses here. Yes, and it's even more dreadful than you might imagine if you've never done it. I recommend running fast and far away if you ever find yourself interviewing on a team where pairing is the default assumption.

dudul 9y ago

Yes.

make3 9y ago
at which company did you see it, and was it everyone

spinningarrow 9y ago

Yes, and I highly recommend it! source: used to think pair programming was odd until I gave it a proper go.

crdoconnor 9y ago

I find it useful for knowledge transfer. It's a good way of bringing new hires up to speed for the first week / two weeks. If you leave them to their own devices they have a tendency to get overwhelmed and fearful of continually bothering you to ask questions. It's sometimes a more efficient way of building stuff where, for a particular task, you need a whole bunch of knowledge or information that's currently living in somebody else's head. Also, if I'm having one of those days when I feel sluggish having another person there kickstarts me a bit... Defaulting to pair programming for every task - especially when the conditions above are not met is a super inefficient and overbearing way of developing though.

swagtricker 9y ago

Yes. Pair programming as the default for me since 2004. I've done it full time for 8 years at an XP shop (Scrum was added later) w/ 3 teams of 20+ total on 3 different continents. Worked for an Agile consultancy and trained people on Pair Programming and TDD for 4 years. I'm now working for an org that does both Pairing AND mob programming (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_programming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_programming). It takes time, patience, and humility to learn how to do well. I find teams that pair simply build better software that has less bugs. There's literally a book on it to consider (https://www.amazon.com/Pair-Programming-Illuminated-Laurie-Williams/dp/0201745763/ https://www.amazon.com/Pair-Programming-Illuminated-Laurie-W...).

maxxxxx 9y ago

I have done it and it works great if you respect the work and each other. It's a nightmare with people who don't care.