Pair Programming ? What is it ?
Pair programming is a software development technique in which two programmers work together at one keyboard. One types in code while the other reviews each line of code as it’s typed in. The person typing is called the driver. The person reviewing the code is called the observer[1] or navigator. The two programmers switch roles frequently (possibly every 30 minutes).
While reviewing, the observer also considers the strategic direction of the work, coming up with ideas for improvements and likely future problems to address. This frees the driver to focus all of his or her attention on the “tactical” aspects of completing the current task, using the observer as a safety net and guid
Last week I have truely done my first session of Pair Programming. Yes, previously I’ve done Pair Programming, but in a more casual sense where we find a problem and sit together for a little while and afterwards each developer goes back to his desk.
This time it was different. We were about a week away from deployment when the Pair Programming was allocated for. Basically it comes down to going through your current bug/snag list and handling each bug, and squashing it there and then on the spot. In my situation I sat with our business analyst working on the project and she helped raise some issues on the business rules side which was not that obvious.
We spent almost 4 hours in this session(8 hours together) and the productivity gained from only this one session was astronomical.
Have anyone every work in such a situation of peer review, peer criticism or pair programming ?