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Pairing

What is it?

Pairing is the concept of two humans working together on a task. The practice of pairing gained traction due to the popularity of “pair programming”, one of the key practices of Extreme Programming. In pair programming, two developers collaborate to write and review code together. The benefits of pairing have since spread to other disciplines and is common across all disciplines at Rise8.

While pairing, one person takes control of the keyboard and mouse (the "driver"), while the other reviews the work being completed (the "navigator"). By rotating roles regularly, they share expertise, improve quality of the work, and accelerate delivery, often resulting in fewer human errors.

Sometimes during paired programming sessions on simple code tasks, the navigator might be relied upon less. This opens an opportunity for alternative paired programming styles such as “Ping Pong Pairing”, where one person writes the tests for code, and the other writes the implementation. This leads to better tests, and more involved sessions.

Why do it?

  • Quality: By having two eyes and two minds on the work, a pair has the ability to talk through and vet the right approach to complete a task. The adage “two minds are better than one” sums up the advantages here.
  • Reduced errors: The navigator is able to quickly catch any errors or mistakes and correct them. This reduces defects or errors in the work.
  • Extremely short feedback loops: Through pairing, the driver is constantly getting feedback from the navigator on the work they are performing. This significantly reduces the waste of “working on the wrong thing.”
  • Education: Pairing sessions present opportunities for mentorship, rapid learning, and development feedback which would otherwise be missed if people worked in isolation.
  • Shared context: Because two people contributed equally to the work, both have context and awareness of why and how the work was done. This reduces “knowledge silos” and ensures that the team isn’t reliant on any single individual on the team for context. Through pairing rotations, you can get the entire team exposure to work so they have enough contextual knowledge to contribute.
  • Energy and focus: By sharing responsibilities, each pair member can put more focus into a task which would normally overload a single person. Additionally, because of the pairing nature, people experience less distractions, leading to better productivity.