Pair Programming - Non-Performing Indications

Non-Performing Indications

There are a few indicators that a pair is not performing well:

• Disengagement – One of the members physically moves their chair away from the keyboard, or starts working on their email, etc. Sometimes this can be as extreme as one member falling asleep.
• Watch the Master – Sometimes one member will be more experienced than the other. There is a temptation to defer to the more senior member, and the less senior will be relegated to observer status. This will often lead to disengagement.
• Silence – Pairs cannot work together if they are not talking to each other.
• Thought Variance – Even if we consider the Watch the Master, a particular program written has different ways to implement by each developer depending on the framework (s)he experienced. This will often lead to confusions and a third person has to decide (Search in Google or Opinion from Team Lead) on which approach to take.
• Effort Variance – Since both concentrate on one particular program, effort in terms of man hours will be divided equally. The chances of parallel work done for a release will be ruled out and two person working on the same computer equally means spending 16 hours as 8 hours.