It Takes Two

Tom Mochal, PgMP, PMP, TSPM is the president of TenStep, Inc., a methodology development, consulting and training company. Tom won the Distinguished Contribution Award from the Project Management Institute for his work spreading knowledge of project management around the world. He is a speaker, lecturer, instructor and consultant to companies and organizations around the world.

  Agile   Communications Management   ProjectsAtWork  

Skeptics remain, but pair programming has stood the test of time, and countless Agile-based software development teams regard it as a fundamental technique. From greater productivity to fewer bugs and better designs, pair programming can provide several advantages to the “lone-wolf” programmer.

One of the most basic aspects of Agile methodologies is the technique of pair programming. This is not necessarily a feature of all Agile methodologies — it is specifically described in the Extreme Programming (XP) model. However, since most organizations tend to use a hybrid Agile approach, many of them incorporate pair programming even if they don't use other aspects of XP.

When I mention pair programming for the first time to students that have not heard of the technique, I am usually met with shock and surprise. The first reaction is something like "Dude, you can't be serious." On the surface, the technique seems counterintuitive to most programmers. After all, isn’t programming the bastion of the lone wolf? The typical programmer receives design specs and then sits down at the terminal to code, code and code. It does not seem to make sense that one programmer would code and another would look over her shoulder.

The other common reaction is that the technique would be a lot less productive. If two people work on one program it would appear …

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