Let me start talking about: People, Principles, Hardware and Furniture in the Web development environment.
There is a, considered by some, “epic” post reasoning about “Why Pair Programming Is Not for the Masses”.
People do or do not pair programming, for different reasons, and in totally different circumstances in US, Europe, India, China, Japan or Brazil.
Of course, an up to date hardware, a smooth and comfortable furniture, a cool and big enough workplace with a beautiful view will improve the life quality no matter where.
But the real question is: what does it matter most?
People & Principles or Hardware & Furniture?
I have being pair programming myself for a while and my boss doesn’t even know about that. Why? Because pair programming isn’t an acceptable practice where I work, so, we the craftsman, do some pair programming now and then, when we feel the need and we feel that is the best option to get things done.
And we do it wherever possible. A few months ago for instance, I was working as an outsourced resource inside the customer building, and my team mate at that time was from another third party company. My company occupies the 1rst floor in the client building. He was on the second, and the average hardware there was a dual core PC with 17’’ screen…
And YES, we do pair programming. We pair program at his desk on the 2nd floor, or at mine on the 1st. And we do it in cubicles.
Not by coincidence, this was one of the most successful recent projects on that client.
I was wondering if only our managers buy the agile idea, follow the principles, buy the hardware and furniture and sit the developers on a cool place, how better it could be…
In the end, lesson learned, about pair programming:
- You just need TWO PEOPLE fully accountable for what they do, no matter the hardware nor the furniture, nor the view.
- The (screen) size doesn’t matter, what matters most is the customer pleasure experienced when a quality product is delivered.
That is it.
Posts
