
What does an XP team room look like? - lemonysnicket
http://www.scissor.com/resources/teamroom/
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hugh
I'm in two minds about this kind of thing. On the upside, some of these ideas
really do seem like they could help programmers to do things quickly and with
fewer bugs. On the downside, the combination of bright colours, constant
supervision, hand-holding, over-planning and idiot-proofing would make me feel
like some kind of cross between a kindergartener and a galley slave.

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ardit33
"We also followed the XP practice of pair programming, which is why you'll see
only two desks for the four programmers."

Pair programming is stupid. It is ok in only two situations:

A senior engineer is teaching around a more junior engineer (or somebody that
just started).

There is a modification/urgent patch going on, that is touching very critical
point of the application, or that is being done right before the product is
shipping.

I just can't imagine good developers like pair programing. It is such a waste
of resources.

~~~
gruseom
I like pair programming. It's not stupid - it's counterintuitive, and like any
counterintuitive idea is vulnerable to snap dismissal, as your comment appears
to exemplify.

Anyone who's ever spent hours going down a rabbit hole that in retrospect was
an obvious mistake may have a conception of why it's not necessarily a waste
of resources. That, and anyone who realizes that programming isn't
straightforward and he may not have all the best ideas about how to do
something.

It's too bad that the discourse around pair programming is dominated by people
who think it should be mandated and people who think it's stupid.

~~~
jrockway
_Anyone who's ever spent hours going down a rabbit hole that in retrospect was
an obvious mistake may have a conception of why it's not necessarily a waste
of resources. That, and anyone who realizes that programming isn't
straightforward and he may not have all the best ideas about how to do
something._

Sure, but many people know when they are about to go down a rabbit hole, and
can just ask a colleague for some advice.

Also, experience is the best teacher. If you rely on the person sitting next
to you to prevent you from making mistakes, you don't learn anything.

~~~
gruseom
If you know in advance that it's a rabbit hole, that isn't what I meant by
rabbit hole.

But I'm not sure what the point is. Arguments about pair programming in
general never go anywhere. What was I thinking? Oh yeah, that it isn't
"stupid".

I like making things together with others, _and_ I like doing stuff on my own,
_and_ I like not being micromanaged and told how to work, _and_ I think my
code gets better when I work on it with somebody smart, _and_ I think I
contribute to other people's too. You figure me out.

~~~
jrockway
_But I'm not sure what the point is. Arguments about pair programming in
general never go anywhere. What was I thinking? Oh yeah, that it isn't
"stupid"._

You are putting words in my mouth. I didn't say anything about pair
programming being stupid.

~~~
gruseom
No, the original comment did.

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rw
Blech. Who works on world-changing projects and uses the vernacular of 'XP'
when discussing coding environments?

~~~
darkxanthos
Paid XP adoption consultants like the guy who wrote the article.

~~~
gcheong
Pair programming is awesome if you're a consultant. Who wouldn't want to bill
out at twice the rate for nearly the same amount of output as a single
developer?

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nihilocrat
Any system that depends on whiteboards and cards (like XP and Agile seem to be
obsessed with) is going to fail miserably when you have a development team /
company spread across offices on different continents (hell, probably even
different cities). I figure you could get by with using an equivalent webapp
or some other application, though.

Please enlighten me if I'm wrong.

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rufius
Just another label for a personality disorder suffered by a particular group
of programmers. Nothing new to see here, move along now.

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apsurd
Isn't this anti-37 signals?

Ok ok , before the downmods come, I'm just saying!!! This seems to be
everything that 37 signals DOES NOT stand for, so the point is ...to each his
own!

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MaysonL
A guy I used to work with found that his code was much better when he
explained it to me as he was writing it. [Note: this seemed to work whether I
was there or not.]

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prakash
Could as well be Michael Schofield's room from the first season of Prison
Break....

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pavelludiq
1 computer and 2 guys? Their budget must be horrible, poor people can't even
afford a second pair of keyboard and a mouse so they can at least use the same
machine at he same time :D

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tzury
I am practicing the XP principles except the pair programming. What can I do,
after all these days, I am all alone at the top ;~)

