Extreme Programming in Perl Robert Nagler phần 4 docx

6.7 Yea, Whatever

Not everybody in my company can sustain pair programming all

the time. We try to flex to each other’s styles when we can.

Sometimes it just doesn’t work.

One of my partners gets what I call the “yea whatevers” when

he’s had enough pair programming. He ends up saying, “yea,

whatever” whenever there’s some type of disagreement. The yea

whatevers only happen after too many conflicts in one session.

Our personalities would start hindering our efforts if we continued

pair programming so we know it’s time to stop.

XP promotes people over process first, and a set of best practices,

second. If the people dynamics aren’t right, I don’t recommend

forcing pair programming. It’s taken this programmer and me

years to figure out what works best for us. We didn’t start out

pair programming when we first started working together, and we

don’t pair continuously all the time now. Most of the time, we

pair when we run into a roadblock, and we know we need help.

This also turns out to be a good way to introduce pairing, that is,

waiting until you get a hard problem before you bring in a partner.

It may be something you do already, possibly at a whiteboard.

Next time, try sharing a keyboard instead. You will be surprised

how much more effective it is to communicate through the code

than in a conference room.

A whiteboard solution is theoretical, and code is being there. It’s

like the difference between planning to climb a mountain and hoot￾ing in unison when you both reach the top. Coding together

means helping each other with the inevitable wrong turns and

near falls. You gain mutual respect and learn to trust each other.

You can’t pair program effectively without these qualities, and

the best way to get there is by working side by side on a hard

problem.

6.8 Gumption Traps

Bad hair days are when nothing seems to go right. Robert Pirsig says this

happens when you run into a gumption trap, something that saps your

energy, discourages you, and causes you to make mistakes. Some examples

Copyright c 2004 Robert Nagler

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