Comments on: Is Every Moment Paired & TDD-ed?

By: Tim Ottinger

Tim Ottinger — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:57:41 +0000

Back in Feb: http://agileinaflash.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-to-do-when-not-pairing.html

By: Gerry Kirk

Gerry Kirk — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:18:46 +0000

I recently stumbled across a compelling white paper on pair programming. The results were based on research studies that showed, among other things that problem solving is greatly enhanced by working with someone else.

That same paper has a great quote from Ron Jeffries, XP legend on a humbling and revealing experience he had when paired with a novice:

“I was sitting with one of the least-experienced developers, working on some fairly straightforward task. Frankly, I was thinking to myself that with my great skill in Smalltalk, I would soon be teaching this
young programmer how it’s really done. We hadn’t been programming more than a few minutes when the youngster asked me why I was doing what I was doing. Sure enough, I was off on a
bad track. I went another way. Then the whippersnapper reminded me of the correct method name for whatever I was mistyping at the time. Pretty soon, he was suggesting what I should do next, meanwhile calling out my every formatting error and syntax mistake.”
- From http://collaboration.csc.ncsu.edu/laurie/Papers/XPSardinia.PDF

By: Tracy Harms

Tracy Harms — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:54:44 +0000

Thanks, I definitely find this reassuring. I’ve struggled with the apparent contradiction between Agile emphasizing things that make so much sense, and TDD requiring adherence to rules that seemed quite the opposite. In particular I got hung up on the insistence by Robert Martin that not one line of code should be written without using the TDD discipline. I imagined that if he needs to calculate a square root he starts by coding a failing test!

From now on I promise that if it seems stupid, I’ll assume it isn’t actually part of the TDD approach.

By: Al Gonzalez

Al Gonzalez — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:38:12 +0000

I admit that I’ve formed misconceptions about *pairing*, TDD and XP. It’s probably because I’ve never found a good source describing what a typical work day might be for a developer in such an environment.

Thanks for making it sound so straight forward and accessible.

By: Mike Bria

Mike Bria — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:38:16 +0000

Miguel,

Love it. I’ll add, if you’re [normal and] pairing/tdd’ing well, you’ll find anymore than 3-5 hours to be breaking another XP cry of “Sustainable Pace”. In other words, you’ll feel fried (and good for you for it!), and working in this fried mode is, well, ick.

Also, sorta reminds me also of Weinberg’s classic advice (granted in a different context, one of consulting) to split your time effectively. Plenty of your time to do “the other things” that aren’t explicitly your primary purpose, but that support your primary purpose.

Cheerios
MB