Pair Programming

Techno Freak
2 min readJun 6, 2022

Agile software development technique..

It is a Agile software development technique originating from Extreme programming (XP) in which two developers team together on one computer. The two people work together to design, code and test. Basically, the two people would be highly skilled and would each have equal time at the keyboard.

The collaboration can be done remotely or in person.. While one programmer is the driver who writes the code, the other serves as the navigator who reviews the code and provides the former with all the key instructions and information. The duration of switching roles may vary from 15 min to 1hour.

Pros of Pair Programming..

:Fewer Bugs and Mistakes-Both developers use their shared knowledge and experience to solve problems faster, even immediately after they arise.

:Greater Resilience- The information will never live with only one person, which helps to prevent unexpected project disruptions or delays due to staff turnover.

:Improved Code quality.-The quality of the code is highly enhanced. With 2 reviews taking place at a time.

:Better Knowledge share- Both the skilled developers share knowledge and put the best efforts to improve the product standard.

Cons of Pair Programming:

:High Development Costs — difficult for startups to use this at the begin stage of the startup. Upfront costs will more since the bugs will be reduced.

:Sustainability- Retaining the developers to a single projects shrinks the result . The mind needs to be freshened up so there is a switch among the devs and the project.

When might be the best time to introduce pair programming??

Consider your team follows the Scrum methodology(most companies follow), the best candidates for pair planning are the sprint planning and sprint review meetings. Once you go over all the pending stories in the sprint, you can agree on the pairs and assign story points to each pair.Always make sure that the code shipped frequently . coding for a application in pairs can be an excellent incentive for team members to switch between the driver and navigator frequently, especially when your developers are paired remotely.

Conclusions are important …….

While for some organizations, pair programming doesn’t fit well, others find that it brings them many benefits, including higher quality code, better training, and faster onboarding. In a team if everybody is working then pair programming can be a good idea for the organization to save time .

Good teamwork and understand of the Application is a mandatory skill for pair programming . Good with your fundamentals .Coming to conclusion quickly after a discussion to proceed with the work is also a challenge in pair programming.

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Techno Freak

Devops &Full-Stack enthusiast . Helping People to learn about cloud and opensource . Learning bit by bit