Pair Programming

So said  STEURS Stefan  on  2002-12-19 --------------------

>Hi,
>
>One question I have in relation to Pair Programming (perhaps I
>misunderstand
>how to organise it).
>
>In our organisation there is a lot of flexibility for working hours.  Some
>people start at 7h00 am, some at 11h00 am, some finish around 15h30, some
>work till 20h30.
>
>Are their hard constraints in pair programming that pairs always have to
>work the same working hours?  How does one arrange that if there is no
>"core
>time".

I feel that this is one of those areas where the members of the team have to want to do What's Best For The Project in order to achieve maximum benefit. 

I am speaking as an individual that generally hates starting work early. When I worked on an XP project, I worked 8h15-16h30, which meant waking up at 6h00, and I dearly love my sleep. Still, in order to get maximum benefit for the team, I made a point of showing up either at 8h15 or 9h00, and our team's core time was 9h00-15h45.

I realize that this doesn't answer your question, and I'm sorry about that. I see Pair Programming and Wildly Flexible Hours as mutually contradictory. If there isn't enough pair-time in the day to write the code and there is more than enough alone-time in the day to cover the one-person tasks, then the team needs to choose whether to allow solo programming or enable more pair programming.

To the extent that the team is able to enable more pair programming, it will have the tendency to do so. Beyond that, it will have to make a choice, understanding that less pair programming leads directly to less quality.

If the team wants to win, it will find a way. I think that that value is ultimately more important than pair programming, but should not be recommended unless the team has seen how powerful pair programming can be.

PS: my "team" chose PP as the first practice to drop. XP was gone within five weeks.

J. B. Rainsberger,
President, Diaspar Software Services
Let's write software that people understand.
http://www.diasparsoftware.com/
telephone: +1 416 791-8603
All correspondence (c) 2002 Diaspar Software Services.
If you want to use it, just ask; don't steal.




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