Some teams I have helped, identified a lack of knowledge on a product as a problem. To tackle this issue, they decided to start with "Agile Pair Programming".
They never did it, so they asked me for some guidance, where and how to start.
As Rachel and Liz wrote in their book: "Pair programming is two people working together- on the same computer, solving the same problem. Each person plays an active role in creating the software; the person actively typing is known as the driver, and her/his partner is the navigator who looks ahead to consider next steps and potential pitfalls. Pairs swap fluidly between these roles."
If your team adopts "Pair Programming", these are some of the advantages that you will benefit from:
First, when you are driving, demonstrate that a significant aspect of pair programming is explaining what you are doing and why, so don´t just type the code in silence.
Second, stay open for suggestions from your pair, even if they are novice programmers. Even though you see a very obvious solution, be willing to try the solution that your pair suggests. In any case, both will learn.
If the solution of your pair is wrong, he/she will learn why it is wrong with the help of your explanation. If the solution is good, then you will acquire new aspects with your novice colleague.
Third, one person should not use the keyboard for more than ten minutes at a time. Using ping pong programming can be a good approach. More information about ping pong programming will be found below.
One big mistake that is common in "Agile Pair programming" is the fact that only one person does all the job. A lot of interaction between pairs should be observed. Interactive pairing forces pairs moving keyboard back and forth several times.
In the beginning, agile pair programming can be frustrating. Most of the time it means that developers will slow down to help colleagues, but in the long term, this is a tremendous aid for the team itself.
To ensure that both members of the pair take turns at the keyboard, teams can use the Ping Pong Programming technique.
I learned this from Rachel's and Liz's book - Ping Pong Programming. Below you can find the steps.
Agile Pair programming is used in "Coding Dojos". A Coding Dojo is an activity that brings developers together to work on a pre-selected programming challenge.
This is a great way for developers to improve their skills and it´s a great event to encourage learning between developers.
Everything starts with a pre-selection of a coding challenge, which helps people to prepare better for the activity. The dojo runs with two developers working on a pair in front of a computer solving the coding challenge.
This can span different topics. For example, refactoring some part of the code, implementing a new architecture, etc. The PC will be connected to a projector to share their work with the rest of the room/office.
During the development task, developers talk aloud giving an explanation to others about tasks and their solutions. If the room cannot follow what is being said, the developers will explain once again until they understand the approach taken by the pair.
I believe this is an excellent way to help team members sharing the knowledge among each other.
Of course, Agile Pair Programming can be used in a regular daily work. To guarantee pair programming rotation, I like the technique that I learned in Rachel and Liz book.
To be honest, I believe that pair programming is not enough, we need to enable pairs to change within a team. Otherwise, we will end up in a situation where only some pairs know a part of a product.
A trick is to work with the team to design a "big visible chart" to increase a visibility of what they want to track; in this case, partners with whom they paired. This makes it easy for the team to see whether they are improving or not.
In this case, the team can use a pairing ladder to show who is paired with whom and how often. Below you can find an example of this pairing ladder.
This was a short post to give you some ideas how can you enable/track pair rotation within your team.
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