That's a great and detailed checklist about how to start pair programming.
I've been doing pair programming for a long time now, and I can reassure you that it becomes less exhausting as you get used to it. Don't expect to do more than 6 hours of intense pairing per day though. That's the amount we managed to do in teams where we were pairing most of the time.
One other interesting thing you noted is how intolerant to wasteful work we become when we are 2. A team might very well accept to lose a lot of time in debugging when everyone is doing it on their own, but as soon as you start pairing, it becomes unbearable. Next time you try pairing, try TDD at the same time. Done well, it removes 99% of your debugging time, which lets the pair focus on productive work.
Thanks for the comment! It's really nice to hear you appreciate our work and that pair programming becomes less exhausting after some practice (comforting words! ;) ). Guess what - we wanted to try TDD the next time we do pair programming. Now we have the real reason to do it (and to write another article about it :D ).
That's a great and detailed checklist about how to start pair programming.
I've been doing pair programming for a long time now, and I can reassure you that it becomes less exhausting as you get used to it. Don't expect to do more than 6 hours of intense pairing per day though. That's the amount we managed to do in teams where we were pairing most of the time.
One other interesting thing you noted is how intolerant to wasteful work we become when we are 2. A team might very well accept to lose a lot of time in debugging when everyone is doing it on their own, but as soon as you start pairing, it becomes unbearable. Next time you try pairing, try TDD at the same time. Done well, it removes 99% of your debugging time, which lets the pair focus on productive work.
Thanks again for your post!
Thanks for the comment! It's really nice to hear you appreciate our work and that pair programming becomes less exhausting after some practice (comforting words! ;) ). Guess what - we wanted to try TDD the next time we do pair programming. Now we have the real reason to do it (and to write another article about it :D ).
Good luck! I wish you these practices bring you as many benefits as they did to me.