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Yes, that's how pairing works: two people, one keyboard, one workstation. Having done this for a while, I wholeheartedly agree with everything the author says.

Yes, that's how pairing works: two people, one keyboard, one workstation. Having done this for a while, I wholeheartedly agree with everything the author says. It's great for software quality and productivity (among other things, it's much harder to slack on HN), but it's also incredibly draining and definitely not for everybody.

asplake 5y ago
Literally half the number of workstations. No option but to pair. I would find that oppressive.
denton-scratch 5y ago
Two people, TWO keyboards, one workstation (with a good monitor). You can't keep switching seats, or shuttling the keyboard back and forth. Remove as much unnecessary friction as possible. And assign someone on the team to be the tea-mug refiller for the day. And management have to provide a workstation for each worker; you pair at a pairing workstation, but everyone needs their own machine for stuff like email, Slack, and reading the news over lunch. Bring a notebook, and record the work you are doing with your pair. You will need that information for the next-morning's SCRUM.
- Clewza313 5y ago
  In my team, the rule was that one person was "driving" (hands on keyboard) and the other was "navigating" (hands off). Whether there's two physical keyboards or not is kinda of immaterial.
- twic 5y ago
  Traditional pairing uses one keyboard, and one screen (or one pair of screens, etc). When i went to Pivotal, that was the first time i had seen two keyboards and mirrored screens. I think the Pivotal way is significantly worse - you have a physical machine to yourself, but not a logical machine, so there is a base level of confusion. Sharing a single keyboard means that it's always obvious who is driving. Sharing a single screen means you can gesture at things. Rather than giving everyone a machine, you can have a few spares for doing email and other solo stuff (as long as you are using webmail!). If people are pairing most of the time, you don't need a dedicated machine each.
  - dkersten 5y ago
    I often did remote pairing over screenhero some years ago. We just got really good at communicating with each other who gets to type and who has to keep their hands off. The first few weeks were hard, we'd naturally just try to fix a typo or something and end up conflicting, but after a short while we got into a nice groove and it was never a problem again.
- dkersten 5y ago
  When I did pairing (see other comments of mine), we used our own laptops. That way, we could both have our own setups that we were comfortable in. It did mean that switching often consisted of a git commit to our branch that we later squashed out. We didn't always bother switching laptops though and we also worked remotely about half the time (using screenhero at the time, I miss SH). > And assign someone on the team to be the tea-mug refiller for the day. I disagree with this. I found frequent breaks to be very important. Pairing is exhausting. "Lets get more tea/coffee" was a good way to have a short break. I think frequent breaks also made using different laptops easier, since its natural to switch drivers after a short break. We didn't have breaks on every switch, of course, but on many we did. The breaks were often only a few minutes, but getting away from the screen even for three minutes really helped.
jhrozek 5y ago
Not necessarily. I occasionally pair with someone, though it's not enforced or even suggested in any way, just a result of discussing a problem for long enough that one of us says "wanna pair on this?". We use either tmate (a fork of tmux specifically for pairing) or a VSCode plugin, depending on whether what we're pairing on. I can very much recommend tmate.

asplake 5y ago

Literally half the number of workstations. No option but to pair. I would find that oppressive.

denton-scratch 5y ago

Two people, TWO keyboards, one workstation (with a good monitor). You can't keep switching seats, or shuttling the keyboard back and forth. Remove as much unnecessary friction as possible. And assign someone on the team to be the tea-mug refiller for the day. And management have to provide a workstation for each worker; you pair at a pairing workstation, but everyone needs their own machine for stuff like email, Slack, and reading the news over lunch. Bring a notebook, and record the work you are doing with your pair. You will need that information for the next-morning's SCRUM.

Clewza313 5y ago
In my team, the rule was that one person was "driving" (hands on keyboard) and the other was "navigating" (hands off). Whether there's two physical keyboards or not is kinda of immaterial.
twic 5y ago
Traditional pairing uses one keyboard, and one screen (or one pair of screens, etc). When i went to Pivotal, that was the first time i had seen two keyboards and mirrored screens. I think the Pivotal way is significantly worse - you have a physical machine to yourself, but not a logical machine, so there is a base level of confusion. Sharing a single keyboard means that it's always obvious who is driving. Sharing a single screen means you can gesture at things. Rather than giving everyone a machine, you can have a few spares for doing email and other solo stuff (as long as you are using webmail!). If people are pairing most of the time, you don't need a dedicated machine each.
- dkersten 5y ago
  I often did remote pairing over screenhero some years ago. We just got really good at communicating with each other who gets to type and who has to keep their hands off. The first few weeks were hard, we'd naturally just try to fix a typo or something and end up conflicting, but after a short while we got into a nice groove and it was never a problem again.
dkersten 5y ago
When I did pairing (see other comments of mine), we used our own laptops. That way, we could both have our own setups that we were comfortable in. It did mean that switching often consisted of a git commit to our branch that we later squashed out. We didn't always bother switching laptops though and we also worked remotely about half the time (using screenhero at the time, I miss SH). > And assign someone on the team to be the tea-mug refiller for the day. I disagree with this. I found frequent breaks to be very important. Pairing is exhausting. "Lets get more tea/coffee" was a good way to have a short break. I think frequent breaks also made using different laptops easier, since its natural to switch drivers after a short break. We didn't have breaks on every switch, of course, but on many we did. The breaks were often only a few minutes, but getting away from the screen even for three minutes really helped.

jhrozek 5y ago

Not necessarily. I occasionally pair with someone, though it's not enforced or even suggested in any way, just a result of discussing a problem for long enough that one of us says "wanna pair on this?". We use either tmate (a fork of tmux specifically for pairing) or a VSCode plugin, depending on whether what we're pairing on. I can very much recommend tmate.