By Peter Bell

A Review of Pair Progamming with Ben - and the Recording

Posted At : May 8, 2008 5:54 PM | Posted By : Peter Bell
Related Categories: TDD, BDD, Testing
Stephen Moretti just wrote up a nice review of the pair programming session Ben and I just did for the Scottish ColdFusion Users Group (including a link to the recording) . . .

We'd hoped to work up an approach to developing a validation framework by starting with specific examples and refactoring to a solution rather than trying to guess it upfront, but there just wasn't time to go that far.

I do think, however, that it gave a really good sense of how pair programming can be useful, and how to get started taking little steps to Red-Green-Refactor in a TDD style. We also used BDD style naming for the tests and mentioned how it would work really well with some kind of agiledox port.

Neithe Ben nor I are experienced with either pairing or TDD, but I think that watching other people starting to come to terms with a new paradigm was helpful - it's certainly the kind of presentation that might have helped me to get started with TDD earlier.

Any input appreciated, as I think the interplay is actually a lot better than just a single presenter, so I'm thinking this is something we might want to do again.

Thoughts?!

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Hi, Peter -- enjoyed speaking with you at cf.Objective(). I thought the exchange between you and Ben during the presentation was great, and absolutely agree that it made for a far more engaging "watch" than a sole presenter. My only criticism would be that I think it work better as a longer session, as I'm not sure that you really had enough time to get into the flow of things.

Otherwise, I have never done TDD, and this was an outstanding introduction to the topic. Both you and Ben did a really nice job of striking a balance between explaining the subject and moving the talk along.
# Posted By Ezra Parker | 5/8/08 9:05 PM
Great to speak with you at cf.o() also! Glad you enjoyed the talk, and I think you're right - it would probably make a pretty good 90-120 minute session.
# Posted By Peter Bell | 5/8/08 10:47 PM
It was good times :) I wish people had been able to see us more visually since there is a lot of physical interaction that takes place that is not apparent with just and audio / screen sharing presentation. I assume that that's what makes remote pair programming not as effective as face-to-face programming. I'm not saying there's anything drastic going on, just subtle human interactions that make better communication and especially debugging.

@Ezra, glad you liked it.
# Posted By Ben Nadel | 5/9/08 7:50 AM
If we did it again, setting up a proper web cam might not be a bad idea - I dont think the cam on the mbp would have the ability to capture everything, but a well placed external cam might . . .
# Posted By Peter Bell | 5/9/08 9:06 AM
Just watched the recording: excellent - great way of presenting and exploring a topic without being overly didactic. Far more engaging. Thanks guys.
# Posted By Julian Halliwell | 5/13/08 4:22 AM
Here it is!
I'll look at this later.
Thanks for pointing it out :-)
# Posted By David Harris | 5/13/08 4:39 PM
You're welcome! I'm not usually one to really push something, but I'm getting so much out of pair programming and Test Driven Development, I really recommend checking it out. I was incredibly sceptical until I tried it and now I'm liking it lots . . .
# Posted By Peter Bell | 5/13/08 4:48 PM
@David, Good to meet you in person - BTW!
# Posted By Peter Bell | 5/13/08 4:48 PM
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