Describe your perfect pair
Hello everyone,
nice to talk to you again. Today we will talk about pairing (programming wise).
It is a difficult subject to write about, since everything I write is from personal experience and wishes.
In the context of programming and according to my experience, the perfect pair should have the following characteristics :
1/ The human touch : you should be able to see the sprints you do together with some kind of a distance. By distance I mean the sprint is important to finish but the flow of work should come easily. To elaborate more, working together should be a series of “give and take”, you contribute to the solution and you take new ideas from your pair. Being just the giver or the taker gives the whole mechanism of working together a kind of imbalance.
2/ Technical proficiency : working with someone is about levels. If he is way better than you technically, then you will spend the whole time just following his lead, and vice versa, if you are way better than him technically, then you will have to lead the whole time and that can become daunting.
3/ Communication : your pair is not your best friend. A healthy communication is very important. I am not talking about being blunt or anything like that, you need to have a big deal of patience, but when you reach your limit, you have to talk frankly , of course respectfully, and tell him how you feel. Not doing that would be unfair to both of you. You will be uncomfortable and he will be subject to your resentment.
4/ Time management : you and your pair should have the same time schedule. To elaborate : if you have reading before the hacking, set a time span.
Ok, being done with this, let’s talk about myself and how I see myself as a pair.
I am sure I don’t meet the criteria of the perfect pair I describe above. I am basically more of a thinker than a doer. You might wonder why is that bad? Very simple : if I don’t understand the underlying logic in a sprint, I am basically paralized. So in some cases I am good for almost nothing.
Now that being said and done, let me hear about your perfect pair and how do you see yourself in that context.
Please remember to comment and share…
XOXO
