DZone

Pair programming has a long and respectable history. Frederic ‘No Silver Bullet’ Brooks practiced it as early as 1953. It makes Scrum, CI/CD, and BDD look like recent fads by comparison. I’ve worked in teams where the latter were practiced with a good deal of commitment and success, but pair programming has never been popular. I am not surprised. I must have racked up no more than a week of solid pairing during 22 years as a developer and I wasn’t convinced of the alleged benefits.

There’s a slightly unsavory intimacy about using the same keyboard, mouse, and monitor that doesn’t work for me at all. I don’t like other people manhandling my keyboard or mouse, pointing their finger at and even against my screen – the horror! I am picky about my peripherals and often spend my own money on the best quality there is. My development environment is set up just the way I like it, with custom key shortcuts that don’t make sense to anyone but me. It’s not set up for other people’s convenience.

Source: DZone