| I interviewed for a week at a consultancy known for pair-programming a long time ago. Each workstation had two chairs, a large iMac in the middle, and the developers had an individual macbook/kb/mouse on each side. The code was on the middle machine, and either kb/mouse could control it. They also were using software named Teleport(?) that let you seamlessly interact with both the main iMac and your own laptop. I don't remember exactly what it did, maybe let you drag files between the two computers or something. I got to pair-program with them on assorted real world tasks that week, a different employee each day. I was generally impressed with the workflow. There was basically zero downtime in terms of progress. I can easily them imagining at least getting a 2x productivity boost, but I'd imagine it was more like 2.5x or more. Sheepishly, what I didn't like about it was that I'm the kind of person that likes to get a lot done and then work on my own stuff on the job, or have the freedom to surf HN when I'm ahead of schedule, and that was kind of impossible there without your teammate knowing it. :) But I will say it was very stimulating and fun. The other developers were really nice and fun to talk to. I work remotely, but I would certainly consider that arrangement if I were to get a desk job again. It's better than the sort of office job where you're languishing on your own and nobody has a firm grasp of what exactly you're even working on in precise terms. I've been there before and it's incredibly stressful when you fall behind pace and your work performance starts to suffer. I feel like pair-programming eliminates that kind of thing. |
I have a hard time seeing why this would work. On the other hand, it's more or less a hand over of knowledge for the system, so in that sense all the negative effects are might be zeroed. I've got this feeling that knowledge hand over is the biggest problem in the industry.
I would really hate to have to do pair programming but I'm not totally convinced it's all bad for the company/product. Maybe one day a week to spread the knowledge?
EDIT: The song is nice. A bit to specific topic to be funny though.