Personally, I see pair programming as one of a set of tools that should be deployed when necessary, rather than followed religiously. I've found it useful when

Personally, I see pair programming as one of a set of tools that should be deployed when necessary, rather than followed religiously. I've found it useful when I'm trying to solve a difficult problem, or teach a new starter about the company's code base. I also don't see it, as some other posters do, as being about 'code ownership' or bragging rights - that seems absurd to me, but perhaps I would feel differently if forced to program that way full-time. Likewise TDD (famously: http://www.infoq.com/news/2007/05/tdd-sudoku http://www.infoq.com/news/2007/05/tdd-sudoku), Agile, etc. None of these things is a panacea, but they can be very effective if thoughtfully applied.