This will be held on the 8th of September. Upcoming page here. The video and slides are available on the SkillsMatter website.

Sarah Taraporewalla and Christian Blunden will be leading this session and offering a mix of games, theory and shared experience as to why and how you should adopt pairing as a development practice.

Pairing isn't really a technique, it's a skill and as such some people are better than others but everyone can practice being a better pair. Pairing is not universally better than solo programming, it tends to be more time consuming but produces better quality code and spreads understanding of the codebase around a team. No more getting stuck if the "Message Bus Guy" isn't in the office.

Pairing 101 aims to introduce what kind of activities are good for pairing and which aren't. It will also try to explain how you can develop your skills and also explain how to be an absolutely atrocious pair.

Event Synopsis

In his book Outliers, Gladwell shares the story of a Korean airliner crash caused by issues in the cockpit. That example brings to mind the excitement and challenges of what would seem to be the simplest of XP practices: pair programming. Simple on the surface (2 people, 1 computer); challenging in reality, we will dig into the tricks and benefits of effectively pair programming. Join us for a fun, interactive session as we identify concerns teams face when starting to pair, explore the many benefits of pairing, and give you our best tips and techniques to make your pairing more effective!