| We do pair programming for nearly all development (apart from trivial copy changes etc) I find it increases productivity because: * Every problem that comes up is solved more quickly with two minds on it discussing the problem. (Often more than twice as quickly than working alone) * One person is usually the driver (uses the keyboard) and the other the navigator. This means one person can keep in mind the overall picture of what they're building, all other parts of the codebase that need to be updated and so on, while the other person concentrates on the nitty gritty of implementing a specific method. * You get distracted less easily (IRC, Twitter, HN, etc) when you're both working on something. * You produce better quality code
- There's no temptation to cut corners when the other person is right there when you're writing it
- Your pair can help you stick to TDD properly
- Both people have insights into best way of writing things
- This means less time wasted refactoring later This last point is why it is so much better than a code review process. Once the code is written there is a temptation to not have to go back and change it, especially for a major redesign that someone else spots. Changing things involves risk of introducing new bugs. There's also the risk of offending the person who wrote the code |