Pair Programming: Benefits, Tips & Advice for Making it Work

Leverage the expertise of both developers to ensure the code is of the highest quality. Junior developers benefit when pair programming with senior developers, since they’ll
gain strong industry knowledge. Meanwhile, senior developers get teaching experience
and the ability to think critically about solutions. Pair programming consists of two programmers sharing a single workstation (one screen, keyboard, and mouse among the pair). Pair programmers switch roles regularly, so both pairs stay engaged.

Consider an instance where the driver encounters a glitch in the code. We might think that two minds can have two differences to solve the issue, but which solution can be taken into account to solve the issue might bitbucket jenkins integration take time. We can also assume that this may down the project completion because two programmers are putting their heads to develop a single program instead of working on two different programs individually.

It increases the team’s overall knowledge level.

The discussion may include the design principles, the intention behind the project, what stacks will be used, and how much duration is needed for the project. At the end of the planning, the programmers are expected to share the same objective and workflow that makes sense to them and decide where they are going. The ultimate benefit of pair programming is without contest its ability to spread knowledge among team members. If you are not already doing it, it’s worth trying to do pair programming with your team.

The programmer can learn better than the resources available on the internet. Another case where pair programming sets a milestone is that both the fellow programmers can learn different things, especially for those areas where the other may not have any knowledge. Developers are therefore advised to keep up the best practices and build a better relationship as a programmer. An underestimated benefit of pair programming is how it lets you onboard new team members blazing fast.

It can be counterproductive for certain types of coders.

Duckly is a tool that helps you to have more productive pair programming sessions. You can share your code from any IDE and your colleagues can collaborate with you in real-time from their own IDE. Besides code sharing, Duckly allows you to share your terminal, screen and naturally talk.

Learn how to make remote pair programming work, including best practices for remote pair programming, tools and styles. Depending on how the pairs are coordinated, junior and senior developers can work together, enabling senior developers to share their knowledge and working habits. With pairing, it is like having somebody review your code instantly and regularly. Two people have to be there and understand the program being written. And if one sees problems with the other’s code, then it can be instantly corrected.

The role of engagement and continuous learning in delivery

Moreover, there are also several tactics to achieve these goals, which can be followed in tandem. The resources for developers need to be efficient enough to fit their requirements apart from the tools they are using. Other techniques like performance monitoring can opt for a proactive approach to monitoring rather than responding to the occurring issue only after the end-user has received it. Similarly, one more popular method that can deliver the best efficiency is pair programming. Let’s look at this technique, the core concepts, challenges, and advantages in detail.

The implicit understanding you have in your head when you’re working alone needs to be communicated so both you and your pair know you’re on the same page. Getting as explicit as possible about the work and the approach up front will help make the pairing experience much more agreeable. Pairing involves a lot of talking, as that’s the best way to keep two minds actively engaged in the problem at the same time. Programming is not about churning out the most lines of code in the shortest amount of time, or even delivering the most features within increasingly tight deadlines. CodeSandbox Live is a real-time collaboration feature that enables developers to work on the same project in real time. With CodeSandbox Live, multiple developers can work on the same codebase simultaneously, making it easier to collaborate on complex projects.

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Code review also combines some testing methods so that quality is ensured. However, it is challenging to find someone who can review our code because others don’t want to see others’ codes since they have difficulty reading and understanding the style and quality. Most of the time, code review consists of adding some functionalities, code cleanliness, and bug fixing, but it also carries a drawback of less appreciation from code reviewers. It allows the programmers to have a face-to-face interaction because it can deliver much better results than boring online tutorials.

Check out these Angular code challenges that are designed for beginners. If there’s a significant gap in skill level between the two partners, one might end up relying too heavily on the other. Having another person with you and changing roles often can help keep you fresh and focused.

Team-building and communication

The Driver’s responsibility is to focus on the mechanics of operating the computer and entering code. The Navigator’s responsibility is to think about what needs to be done and where we are going. The two will communicate continually and shift roles frequently, probably every few minutes. Sohrab is a long-standing Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and CEO of the Scrum Academy GmbH based in Cologne.

• The former is responsible for achieving the small objectives or steps, one by one.
• Based on researches carried out through surveys and practices, it has been found that pair programming, if done right results speed up the coding to about 15%.
• Junior developers benefit when pair programming with senior developers, since they’ll
  gain strong industry knowledge.
• To get into the chatbot development, you’ll need to have a good command of these programming languages.
• Therefore, equal participation and effort is an important aspect of pair programming.

It sums up the developers to individually communicate and drive a solution-based approach to proceed with a problem without worrying about bugs and glitches. The time cost in mythical work hours is nowhere near the 50% that may seem intuitive if you tried to to equate the intricate art of coding with repetitive assembly line work. This style works well for a novice paired with an expert programmer. The navigator role can range from a reserved approach to a tactical hands-on role. The process starts with the developers receiving a well-defined task.

What is pair programming?

As you can see from the video, pair programming involves two programmers working in tandem, in specific roles of driver and navigator, to work more quickly and to share knowledge. With the ping-pong approach, one developer writes a test and the other developer makes the test pass. When two developers shift roles regularly, it is unlikely one programmer will control the workflow.

Technical debt is a constant uphill battle for any development teams. To deal with it, you have to get disciplined as a team and embrace a culture of periodical reviews. If you don’t, sooner or later your code base will internally implose and any changes will require a lot of efforts. The reviewer is ultimately responsible for letting your code pass to the next stage on your Scrum board, for example QA, or go straight into production. Reviewing someone else code requires discipline, context switching and spending a lot of time reflecting on potential issues. Thus, most often than not, reviewers put way too much trust into the author’s code, leading to defects not being caught before landing into production.

No alone time

In such cases I have even brought in a junior who possesses specialist knowledge into the forum to consult. Yes mate, It’s really an awesome technique to improve your productivity and it also saves time. It’s important to take regular breaks to prevent fatigue and maintain productivity. Use these breaks to reflect on progress, discuss challenges, and plan the next steps. Remember to consider each other’s energy levels and schedule breaks accordingly. More simply “pairing”; the phrases “paired programming” and “programming in pairs” are also used, less frequently.