Pair Programming

When pair programming, one programmer types in code at the keyboard and the other programmer watches for mistakes and thinks strategically about whether the code is being written correctly and whether the right code is being written. Pair programming was originally popularized by Extreme Programming (Beck 2000), but it is now being used more widely (Williams and Kessler 2002).

Keys to Success with Pair Programming

The basic concept of pair programming is simple, but its use nonetheless benefits from a few guidelines:

Support pair programming with coding standards. Pair programming will not be effective if the two people in the pair spend their time arguing about coding style. Try to standardize what Chapter 5, refers to as the "accidental ...

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