Pair Programming

After over a year of working solo it’s great to be working in a team again. And we’ve been aggresively pair programming for two weeks now and I have to say that it has been extremely intense but rewarding.
After working alone for so long working “intimately” with another developer takes some getting used to. The first thing I noticed was the need to articulate my ideas better. I’d gotten so used to working inside my head that it was quite exhausting having to explain every detail of my design. But the exercise has ultimately resulted in a better design. When I’d get to a point that was involving too much hand waving I’d realize my understanding of the problem may be incomplete. So we’d work through the process together and end up with a cohesive design.

Training has been incredibly fast. By disciplined pairing for the first week alone we were able to get up and running and producing value in mere days, not weeks or months that training typically takes. By having the new developer sit in my cube and share the keyboard all day, everyday for a week we were able to finish wiring up some of the actual work in less time than would have been wasted elsewhere.

So far, I’m really enjoying pairing. I recommend doing it to any developer. It will be hard at first but the result will be better code and two better developers.