The Cafes » Why Pair Programming Works
http://cafe.elharo.com/programming/why-pair-programming-works/

Elliotte Rusty Harold's perspective on six reasons that he believes pair programming succeeds: 1) Continuous code review, 2) Fewer blockages, 3) Masking distractions, 4) Guaranteed focus, 5) Multiple points of view, and 6) Reduced training cost and time.

Pair programming is like magic in more ways than one. It dramatically improves programmer productivity and reduces bug count, and yet it does so through a technique that’s completely counter-intuitive.

1. Continuous Code Review; 2. Fewer blockages; 3; Masking distractions; 4. Guaranteed focus; 5. Multiple points of view; 6.Reduced training cost and time

People often ask how can I justify two people when one will do. Will this not, just double my cost? To answer this question I think it is important to discuss what pair-programing is not.

At the simplest level pairing is helping people one-on-one, not through emails, let me show you behind a keyboard, instead of telling you in abstract. The amount of pairing and keeping each other on track depends on many things, but you will find that more you pair the more you will learn from each other and the better the code becomes.

Must show this to a few people.

I sacrificed my productivity to make Arthur productive in a single day. If I did not it would take Arthur weeks before he would figure out how to set everything up how things worked and enough courage to fix a bug. Yet that is exactly what most companies do. Think about the confidence Arthur had on day one working with us. He was up and ready and he fixed two bugs on day one.

We used this pretty effectively at Reevoo, and I'm sure I'll use it again.