Pair Programming: Styles

There are more styles out there, some just variations of the following while others are deviations. However, these are some excellent starting places that can take a team far for a long time.

Backseat Navigator

Getting Ramped Up and The Bug Squashing Duos

When would someone try this style?

  • They want to focus on letting one member learn a great deal and the other primarily sharing knowledge.

  • An impediment has them stuck. They want someone to assist in getting through it but cannot do an entire pairing session.

This pair programming style is the only one that we will address here where the Driver and the Navigator roles do not switch during a session. For these sessions, we start with the intent to share knowledge in a mostly one-directional flow. This pairing session could be something of the nature of; learning a new language with a hands-on guided mentor, starting on a project for the first time and tribal knowledge needs to be shared, and so forth.

During these pairing sessions, the Driver and Navigator participate, as usual, helping each other progress in their challenges. However, the more experienced member acts solely as the Navigator allowing the Driver to absorb what is shared. It is a good reminder for the navigator to balance the give and take of allowing the driver to explore and absorb at their pace against walking the thin line of micromanaging them.

Pomodoro

Finding a Groove

When would someone try this style?

  • When you have more than one participant who would be able to accomplish the task without the assistance of the other, whether or not it would be at the same speed or skill is not essential.

  • When the participants of that particular pairing have not found their groove together yet, or possibly old pairing partners discover they don’t switch roles as often as they used to.

This pair programming style is the stepping stone towards landing in a Tag Team style dynamic between two pairs. The two styles share many similarities; however, they deviate when participants switch roles.

Let’s look at some straightforward timing rules. Keep in mind that you can adjust them as you build a pairing relationship with your different teammates.

Kick off

  • Start your pair programming session with a knowledge share about your challenge, discuss the concepts at play and possible directions to take the task at hand.

  • Set a pairing session timebox. In the early stages, set it to 2 hours or so and grow from there. Actively keep it from increasing past 4 hours in the immediate future. It is essential to understand the drain and fatigue sustained social interaction can add to pushing your mind hard on complex problems and development in general.

Then

  1. Determine who the Driver and Navigator are, or switch if you are repeating from the last step.

  2. Assess the challenge and task to perform.

  3. Grab a timer. Set said timer to 25 minutes. Start driving and navigating.

  4. Take a 5 minute timed break. Step away, sit in silence, goof around a little, whatever the individuals need at the time.

  5. Repeat.

Tag Team

The Evolved Pomodoro

When would someone try this style?

  • The participants involved can accomplish their tasks individually, have experience in Pomodoro pairing together, and have built enough empathy between the involved members on sharing ideas freely and actively switch Driver and Navigator roles between them without the need for a timer.

Tag Team shares the same concepts around switching Driver and Navigator roles, durations, and considerations as Pomodoro pairing. However, when pairs have worked together and found their grooves, it does not always look like a standard 30-minute switch cycle. The Tag Team approach allows freedom from the ticking clock to augment the dynamic between the two, pair more naturally for the team up, and often switch as the group discusses their options and direction to take. These natural conversations will lead to natural switching.

At some point, you will find your sessions have had little switching involved; when that does happen, do not hesitate to embrace the Pomodoro style for a bit to get your groove back.

Blind Leading the Blind

The “I Can Not Find A Backseat Navigator But I Do Not Want To Do This Alone” Style

When would someone try this style?

  • Sometimes you have to learn something, and no one can help you overcome the barriers that block your entry to understanding. Sometimes it is beneficial to have another person in the same boat to share the pains, pick up the knowledge, and disperse it all at once.

Learning and navigating something very challenging is sometimes best done alone, and other times taking the approach of a collaborative learning session can help immensely. It is always a case-by-case judgment call, and each time attempted, do not feel bad for needing to pull the plug on it or bring in other people to help out possibly. By the very nature of the task, it is tough, and fatigue can cascade quickly.

While it is always ideal to have a pairing partner who has more knowledge than you, sometimes the only people available are others who do not know how to accomplish the task at hand. If you have an excellent working dynamic with them, the two-heads-are-better-than-one concept can kick in and help navigate the roadblocks that will constantly pop up.

Note that both participants’ having too little knowledge or experience in the tasks at hand will often cultivate the classic “set up to fail” scenario (pairing or solo). So under strong consideration, constantly assess if there is a way to get out of these kinds of situations (pairing or not) and set up some Backseat Navigator sessions instead.

Additional Styles

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