The Buddy System: A Look at Pair Programming

The Buddy System: A Look at Pair Programming Agile Day Twin Cities November 2, 2012

Agenda • Who Am I? • Who Are You? • The Buddy System • What’s the Big Deal? • Why is it so Hard? • Let’s Pair! • Questions

Who Am I? • Jenna Pederson • Programmer-geek, lover of learning • 10+ years in the software space

Who Are You?

The Buddy System • Two programmers, one computer • Operate as a single unit to keep an eye on and support each other • Take on complementary roles Image: tomsaint / http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomsaint/

What’s the Big Deal?

Image: busy-pochi / http://www.flickr.com/photos/busy-pochi/ Improved Quality

Knowledge Transfer

Get Things Done

Image: timothymorgan / http://www.flickr.com/photos/timothymorgan/ Image: beaugiles / http://www.flickr.com/photos/beaugiles/ Image: keiva / http://www.flickr.com/photos/keiya/ Image: thunder / http://www.flickr.com/photos/thunder/ Image: chelmsfordpubliclibrary / http://www.flickr.com/photos/chelmsfordpubliclibrary/ Less Distractions

Image: oklanica / http://www.flickr.com/photos/oklanica/ Why is Pair Programming Hard?

Common Excuses and the Solutions

• Programmers are Introverts. • I have a personal “bubble” and I don’t want you in it. • You’re going too fast for me to keep up. • You’re going too slow. I’m getting bored. • My partner is always multi-tasking on a second computer. • My pair is a keyboard hog.

• My partner is telling me which characters to type! • How do I convince management? • It costs twice as much to hire two people to do one person’s job. • My team is distributed and remote pairing is hard. • My team sets their own hours. • I’m getting sick of my pair partner. • My pair partner smells.

Image: lorenzo-bros / http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorenzo-bros/ Let’s Pair!

Scoring a Bowling Game • A “game” has 10 frames • Score for a frame is the number of pins knocked down in both “rolls” + extras for strikes and spares • Player can “roll” a ball to knock down some pins • At the end, a game can be “scored”

Questions?

Thank You! Feedback: http://spkr8.com/t/18051 Twitter: @jennapederson Blog: www.jpedersonconsulting.com/blog

The Buddy System: A Look at Pair Programming Agile Day Twin Cities November 2, 2012