On Fri, 2002-08-16 at 19:19, Bartley, Chris P wrote: > We used it at my old job, and i really miss it. I was *really* skeptical at > first, but quickly grew to love it. Great way to learn, have fun, and > actually get a *lot* of work done. We found that even pairing people with > rather different areas of expertise (e.g. EJBs vs web tier) still worked out > nicely--the different perspectives only helped, and both ended up learning. > And since there's greatly reduced code ownership (since you're pairing and > switching the pairs around often), there seems to be a lot less fear about > changing code. Also, since everybody ends up working on all parts of the > app, your truck factor is reduced and you'll end up with fewer bottlenecks > (e.g. "Crap...Bob is out sick today and he's the only one who knows how the > FooBar part of the system works").
That never happens, does it? (sic) I guess missing it and ending up 'heart broken' is one of the dangers while it is not a 'standard' practice. I don't know what the statistics on XP usage are, although hopefully the Standish Group will offer some insight in their material. > A few tips: > > 1) Once you've proven it to be a success, push management for dual monitors > at pairing stations. (seriously!) We found being able to devote one screen > to code and the other to command prompts, browsers, etc. very helpful. Sounds good, except in my little world I am my management and all my budget comes out of my pocket :) Might have to leave the dual monitor thing for a while ;) > 2) I'm a die-hard IntelliJ IDEA fan (www.intellij.com/idea), so i've gotta > plug it...its "programming-by-intention" feature is great for XP. When > you're writing your tests first (JUnit is integrated) and reference a > currently non-existent method in the class being tested, IDEA will ask if > you want to create it and, if so, stub it out. Also, the refactoring tools > are amazing, and IMHO very suitable for XP development. Not tried IntelliJ, will go and see what the fuss is about. > 3) Make sure all team members get in the habit of brushing teeth after > lunch--your pairs (and dentists) will be grateful ;) lol :) > If you can, give it a chance and try it out. I absolutely intend to. A friend and colleague I work with on personal projects as well as professional thinks in a very similar way to me, although he is a front end developer. I'm interested in how pair programming would work for us. I do believe I have the beginnings of the XP bug, I've sent him the URL and I am more than certain he'll ring me in the next day or two, bursting with excitement :) Very cool stuff, I do suggest that anyone who was like me yesterday - completely ignorant - should read the article; it's a small investment for something that could potentially revolutionize the way you think about software development. Here's the URL just in case anyone missed it the first time ;) http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-xp0813/?n-j-8152 -- Regards ------------------------------------------- Cliff Rowley | [EMAIL PROTECTED] Software Engineer | www.doctype.co.uk +44 (0) 1206 514263 | www.cliffrowley.com ------------------------------------------- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
