The Business Value of Pair Programming

After ten years in the public eye, Pair programming (two people seated together, working on the same programming task) is still one of the most controversial of all the agile programming practices. Managers are concerned about the cost of having "two doing the work of one," and developers are concerned about what will happen to their privacy, their reputations, and their personal performance metrics. Rob Myers dispels these and other concerns by examining the Lean aspects of the technique and by describing subtle (yet high-dividend) benefits. Rob's "Top Ten" contains only benefits that provide clear and significant value to the organization, the team, and the individual. Rob also gives some clear advice on how to try this technique and evaluate the results. You will be better equipped to weigh the costs, benefits, and ROI of pair programming, and to decide whether or not it is valuable for your organization.