The zen of pair-programming, is the breaking down knowledge silos. The essence of coming together in a synchronous fashion.
- 💯 open mind (leave ego behind) and be ready to learn, share and listen
- Session should have a well defined task to ideally accomplish within a 1 hour time window
- One person to initially take lead on work; taking in feedback from other. The lead can switch during session to other person and should be a normal occurrence
- Pair programming is a 1:1 activity only. No other active participants, no other distractions
- When applicable, don’t be afraid of multi threading. i.e. I work on the bug fix, you help add the test.
- Both participants should have at least a general idea of the task ahead prior to pairing and ideally prepped up workspace that will allow each to engage from the go
- Set aside a couple minutes in beginning for warm greetings and small talk to break the ice and settle in, but don’t let it go on too long. There is hacking to be done!
- If you run into a conflict on how to do something, that is ok. Agree to table it and default to person who took initial lead on session. Then get feedback from greater team in review process or leverage project design documents.
- Embrace this opportunity to build a more inclusive environment. Work with people who are underrepresented in the industry and level up together.