Programming is essentially mathematics. Imagine if mathematicians were required to do pair-proving. Pair- programming is a case in point. It emerged from "Xtre

Programming is essentially mathematics. Imagine if mathematicians were required to do pair-proving. Pair- programming is a case in point. It emerged from "Xtreme Programming" which emphasized "values" and "people", not problem solving skills. So why didn't they go further and require "triple programming", then "quatro programming" and so on? The way to tackle complex problems is by divide-and-conquer: Divide the problem into smaller parts which can be solved independently. Pair-programming is not that, it doesn't divide the problem into two and then let each programmer work on one part of it individually. Instead there's a pair of chefs in the same kitchen team-cooking the same spaghetti. To put it bluntly I think people who demand "team-players" are typically those who don't have the skills to solve any part of the problem by themselves. By building a team around them they can hide that fact. If the project fails it is nobody's fault, the whole team did their best and still it couldn't succeed. We followed the best agile practices you know. Or maybe it succeeds, because of a few good men and women. (Successful) team-playing is when each team-member plays their part, not when they all play the same part. Think volley-ball, that's a great team-sport.