Pair programming is a practice in software development whereby two programmers write code together. I’ve studied it from afar until recently. What happened is a colleague asked me to pair program with him. As his program manager from a coding background, we’ve been working with relative success and happiness for several months. I liked the process so much that I wanted to take a deep dive to explore problem areas and tricks of the trade in order to really master the topic. This book did that trick.
Pair programming is a part of Extreme Programming techniques and other software development paradigms. It’s not exclusively wedded to those concepts, though. I’ve learned a lot from Extreme Programming but haven’t always had the liberty or desire to adopt all its techniques. This book, however, helped me think about how to work through potential personality issues in pair programming. It also gave me words to put upon my own emotions and reactions. It talks about such problems as issues with extroversion and introversion, issues with pairing novices and experts, potential gender and cultural issues, and issues with balancing two egos. Overall, working through these issues helps place maximal emphasis on the code instead of on the personality.
The biggest weakness of the book is its title page. It’s frankly hokey and not well-conceived for the mass market. It lacks polish. This book’s contents, thankfully, are elite and deserve attention. I just wish the title page didn’t turn me off so much.
This book addresses software developers and their managers. It presents common roadblocks among both groups. Although the concepts have been around for nearly 20 years, adoption in practice still lags. Hopefully, these concepts will receive a second life because of their potential payoff: Increased productivity, decreased bugs, healthier relationships, and better employee retention. I recommend software folks read this one.
Pair Programming Illuminated
By Laurie Williams & Robert Kessler
Copyright (c) 2007
Pearson Technology Group
ISBN13 9780201745763
Page Count: 265
Genre: Computer Science
www.amazon.com