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Discussion on: Why I'm not a fan of pair programming

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Justin L Beall

Pair programming (coding) is one paradigm. There are many flavors within that paradigm and many of that ways of coding.

It is my belief that quality can exist/be ignored in any model.

Piar programming (especially coupled with TDD) focuses on the future state of the codebase by emphasizing the importance of quality over speed.

It is always easy to slap together features in a greenfield project. This is when the code base is 'fun'.

BUT, it is soul crushing to work in a legacy monolith spawned by this feature bloated context heavy labyrinth built upon work arounds, God functions, and a foundation created by a founder's first poc... explaining to stakeholders why can't we move like the good old days... especially explaining that the gold old days CAUSED the dismal hell we live in today.

Piar programming should be a tool in your tool box. Have a junior struggling, pair him/her. Struggling with quality, pair dev + coach. Trunk based development with continuous delivery to production, pair 2 strong seniors. Team struggling to distribute knowledge, mob program silos away...