Better Software - July/August 2008 - (Page 48) The Last Word with a defense against boredom, and thus attrition. You also can rely on your teammates to work well on all parts of the product, so you can finally go on vacation! Courage: Working with someone provides courage and tenacity. Collaborators provide each other with sanity checks and moral support. Technical exploration tends to be fearless, focused, and immediate. Individuals often set aside tough problems for “later”—or even for “someone else”—even if those tough tasks are at the top of the prioritized list. The pair tends to have courage and humility that an individual won’t have. For example, if I don’t know the solution to a problem, I may feel stupid. But if neither of us knows, we know that it’s a tough question. We also feel more confident asking others for help. The first thing out of my mouth doesn’t have to be “I can’t …” but instead could be “We can’t …” It makes a world of difference. Pairs tend to push forward or provide feedback earlier so the business can adapt to real difficulties. Self-Management: Pair Programmers encourage each other to stay focused. Whether intentionally or accidentally, workers typically burn up a lot of their day responding to email, reading news on the Web, daydreaming of an exciting job, or wasting time with other interruptions. When they pair, none of these things happen. Rather than cutting corners, they have more time in the day to do things right, thus leading to higher quality projects and fewer costly surprises. Work is both social and productive, leading to high morale and the retention of valuable employees. As a result, managers can focus their efforts on the project, the product, and the team rather than on micro-managing individuals. lems with pairing and the problems that pairing is intended to solve. Only then can the team evaluate costs and benefits honestly, with an eye toward maximizing the quality and throughput of business value for the organization. Otherwise this peculiarly effective practice may be set aside for the wrong reasons. Rather than accepting my experience with the cost-to-benefit ratio of pair programming, you should try it yourself. Pair programming is a practice that was formalized by the agile movement. With that in mind, I suggest that the team should adopt pairing wholeheartedly for one or two iterations. Stick to your team’s pair programming “rules of engagement” diligently for that time, and then talk about it during the retrospective. Adjust accordingly. {end} How to Adopt Pair Programming Problems should always be examined for the root cause. This includes probDisplay Advertising 8 Inside Back Cover 14 19 Back Cover 29 10 Inside Front Cover 43 45 21 2 15 44 1 45 5 Index to Advertisers Agile Development Practices 2008 AutomatedQA Blackbaud, Inc. 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