RE: Pair Programming

> -----Original Message-----
> From: J. B. Rainsberger [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 12:51 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [XC] 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.

Perhaps this is an easy statement to make but let's look at "my" situation.
During the week that I don't have to bring the kids to school I'm at work at
7h00 am and work until something like 17h30 pm.
When I bring my kids to school I cannot be at work earlier than 9h00 am and
usually it's more like 9h20.

Do I have any choice in taking my kids to school?  No.

Do I like to start at 7h00 am?  Yes.  I avoid all the traffic jams and that
saves me 1h00 of aggrevation a day.

But What's best for the project is at odds with What's best for the family.
Do I really have a choice?
 
> 
> 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 love my bed as well but I wake up nearly every day at 5h45.
> 
> 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.

The question is then "How do we enable more pair programming?"  I don't see
how.
Does anyone on this list have ideas about this?
> 
> 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.

Perhaps there are other practices that can regain some of that quality?
Would a walkthrough help, e.g. developer that was not paired walks through
the code with peer when peer arrives?
> 
> 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.

In the testing I've organised and planned, I've always looked at business
needs/operational profiles, programming/design complexity, tester's
capability, ... and then determine the critical/risky pieces that need to be
covered most.  Isn't this possible for pair programming as well.  I guess
there must be pieces of code that are not so critical and risky so they
would be ideal candidates for single programming while other absolutely
require pair programming.  Could this work?
> 
> PS: my "team" chose PP as the first practice to drop. XP was 
> gone within five weeks.

What was their justification/motivation for dropping it?
> 
> 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.

Regards, Stefan Steurs.


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