Pair programming and why it is special

Pair Programming and Why it is special

Pair Programming is an Agile Development practice that was born out of the Extreme Programming movement.

Working as a team of [exactly] two, at a single computer, the pair will slide the keyboard and mouse back-and-forth throughout a "pairing session". This increases the code quality by providing a "greater than the sum of its parts" effect of two developers working on a single problem domain.

The increase in quality of the code, combined with the effect of knowledge and understanding on the project being spread across multiple developers, can produce a large savings in cost on the project as a whole.

In a Test Driven Development (TDD) shop, it is most common for each member of the pair to take turns a) writing a test and b) writing code to pass the test. This "ping pong" yields a cumulative effect on the overall quality of the final product.

To be most effective it is important that pairs are intermixed; not the same couple of developers always working together.

Pair programming is considered to be very "social". It can be akin to a marriage because you learn to cooperate with a peer in a close, give-and-take relationship. As such it is often very difficult to become comfortable with pair programming. Some developers simply NEVER feel quite at-home. In the end, the willingness to share, be a bit vulnerable and work cooperatively toward a better product will make you a far better developer (and a better person overall).