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Further Together:
Curated Pairing Culture
@Pivotal
Neha Batra
@nerdneha
#furtherpairingtogether #qconsf

@nerdneha
#furtherpairingtogether
#qconsf
Goals
1. Failed Attempts
2. Pairing @ Pivotal Labs
3. Pair Programming & You
4. Good times
5. War Stories
6. Lessons Learned

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Why do I care about pairing & culture?

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Why do I care about pairing & culture?
● Inclusion
● Teamwork
● Learning
● Challenging ourselves

Further together: Curated Pairing Culture @Pivotal

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Failed Attempts
● Pairing 1 hr per week, ½ day per week
● Still have your own work to get done
● No way to capture contributions or credit the pair
● Pair didn’t want to pair with you
● It’s faster by yourself
● Silent treatment

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Pair Programming is
hard

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Cultural Tenets at Pivotal
Do what works
Do the right thing
Be kind

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Pivotal Labs: Setup
Client Pivotal

@nerdneha
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Pivotal Labs: Setup
Team

@nerdneha
#qconsf
What’s particularly unique about our culture
Pivots are well-equipped and willing to:
● Be vulnerable
● Be fearless
● Go slower in the short term for long term gain
● Trust that others will do the right thing
● Eliminate code and emotional silos
● Do the right thing for the team

@nerdneha
#qconsf
How did we build this culture?
● TDD
● Set Schedule
● Retros & Feedback loops
● Well-written stories
● Fewer meetings
● Hiring for good pairs
● CI & CD
● Taking our Mission seriously

@nerdneha
#qconsf
The big picture at Pivotal Labs
Pairadise
Test Driven Development
Pairadise

@nerdneha
#qconsf
TDD & Pairing
It’s easier to agree on a
test than it is to agree
on an implementation

@nerdneha
#qconsf
TDD + Pairing allows for balance and avoids fights
Easier to agree on a test
Go with the simplest implementation
Red, Green, Refactor
No pull requests/judgement day!

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Pairadise
Set Schedule
Pairadise

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Weekly schedule = Weekly iterations & feedback
Alignment
Planning
Execution
Feedback
Standups
Pre-IPM
IPM
(WORK)
Pre-CL
CL
Retros

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Pairadise
Set Schedule
Retros &
Feedback
Pairadise

@nerdneha
#qconsf
“All life is an
experiment.
The more experiments
you make the better”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Retrospectives -- circulates feedback
Action Items

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Retrospectives -- circulates feedback
Action Items
Tech Retros
Parking Lot

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Daily Retros circulate feedback faster
How do you think it went?
I was concerned about ______, did you feel that way?
Should we try something new next time?

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Pairadise
Set Schedule
(9am-6pm)
Retros &
Feedback
Concise,
independent,
prioritized stories
Pairadise

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Pairadise
Set Schedule
(9am-6pm)
Retros &
Feedback
Few Meetings
Concise,
independent,
prioritized stories
Pairadise

@nerdneha
#qconsf
“I love spending all my
time in meetings”
- No one ever

@nerdneha
#qconsf
“People are happiest
when people are being
productive”
- Rob Mee

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Talk in person / record in writing = fewer meetings
Walk over to PM
Cross functional pairing: Pair with designer or PM
Schedule check-in
Appear.in/Dedicated video
Call - Batphone

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Pairadise
Set Schedule
Retros &
Feedback
Few Meetings
Concise,
independent,
prioritized stories
CI & CD
Hiring for
good pairs
Pairadise

@nerdneha
#qconsf
● Isolated team
● Few interruptions/meetings
● Buy-in to execute on priorities
● PM/Design resources available
Best pairing conditions?

@nerdneha
#qconsf
● Select team with “all hands on deck” feature
How to get buy-in

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Getting buy-in for Pairing:
Convince them to
“experiment” for
JUST ONE WEEK

@nerdneha
#qconsf
● Select team with “all hands on deck” feature
● Introduce concept as an experiment
● Loop in product owner frequently
● Release early, often, and iterate
How to get buy-in

@nerdneha
#qconsf
“I’m exhausted, talking so much is tiring”
“Won’t the team move half as fast?”
“I don’t get much value out of it”
“[X activity] isn’t pair worthy”
“I don’t like the inflexible schedule”
“I’m always being watched”
“Hard to work with someone when you disagree”
“It’s the blind leading the blind”
Prepair. Know the opposition

@nerdneha
#qconsf
● 1 computer, 2 monitors, 2 mice, 2 keyboards
● Mirror screens
● Increase your font
● Git duet-commit
● Good IDE
● Keycastr to see shortcut keystrokes
Pairing setup hardware/software

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Remote pairing: GET GOOD HARDWARE
● Good Headphones
● Good Internet connection
● Set schedule, procedures, and expectations
● More explicit back & forth (ex: ping pong pairing)
● Check-in more
● Take time to build rapport
● Try for some in-person pairing at the beginning IF possible

@nerdneha
#qconsf
● Take turns - try ping-pong pairing or Timeout
● Take breaks -
○ Bonding: ping pong, cards (set)
○ Time apart: catch up on emails/personal life
● Expairiment - mobbing
● Keep an open mind
The intangibles of Pairing

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Pairing is like making a
new friend:
It’s going to be awkward

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Pairing is like making a
new friend:
It’s going to be awkward
so give it some time

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Imbalanced Levels in Pairing
For the more experienced pair. You want to pair because:
● Fewer repeated questions
● Freeing you up for more complex work
● You won’t be called up on vacation
For the less experienced pair. You want to pair because:
● Learn more/faster
● Get reasoning behind methods & business context

@nerdneha
#qconsf
● Productivity
● Code Quality
● Project Success
○ Easy temperature on team
○ Easy to help/understand what’s going on
● Happiness
● Skill growth/sharing
● Career Success
Good pairing looks like...

@nerdneha
#qconsf
● Built project in Go but don’t know Go
● Learned React
● Enable clients to transition to software engineer roles
● Rapid prototyping-user testing
Accomplishments because of Pairing culture

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Tool chest to prevent & mitigate issues as
they come up
● SWOT Analysis: what is your team’s combined profile?
● Personal Goals: what do we each want out of the project?
● Inception
● Set schedule/cadence

@nerdneha
#qconsf
they come up
● Inception
● Provide feedback opportunities at multiple levels
● Provide “safe haven” to get work done free from scope changes
● Have a way to collect concerns and dedicated time to discuss them

@nerdneha
#qconsf
they come up
● Inception
● Provide feedback opportunities at multiple levels
● Provide “safe haven” to get work done free from scope changes
● Have a way to collect concerns and dedicated time to discuss them
● Talk in person
● Write down conversation/context
● Find a way to align first (ex: TDD + Pairing or discussing high-level)
● Daily retros

@nerdneha
#qconsf
What was surprising about pairing after 1 year
Pair Programming is like making friends, it takes time
You will need an extra hour or more of sleep per night
Have patience with yourself and others
You can code/ramp up with anything now

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Why does Pair Programming stick at Pivotal?
● Enablement-focused
○ Nature of our projects

@nerdneha
#qconsf
● Shared-accountability
○ Same backlog
○ IPMs point stories but emphasis on low volatility, not high velocity
○ No silos

@nerdneha
#qconsf
● Shared-accountability
○ Same backlog
○ IPMs point stories but emphasis on low volatility, not high velocity
○ No silos
● Empowered coworkers
○ Setting the tone during Onboarding, Inception, and through Management
○ No singling out (always as pairs that change daily)
○ “No question is stupid”
○ Empathetic coworkers

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Cultural Transformation:
A few good apples can
transform the whole
barrel

@nerdneha
#qconsf
Extreme Programming Explained:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321278658/extremeprogrammi
Pairing is more productive than soloing:
http://collaboration.csc.ncsu.edu/laurie/Papers/ieeeSoftware.PDF
Stanford Study on pairing, when and why it works:
http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/2005/pairs/PairProgramming-WhenWhy.pdf
Remote Pairing: Collaborative Tools for Distributed Development is a book by Joe Kutner
https://pragprog.com/book/jkrp/remote-pairing
Pair programming productivity: Novice–novice vs. expert–expert
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mckinley/305j/pair-hcs-2006.pdf
The effectiveness of pair programming: A meta-analysis
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950584909000123
Evaluating Pair Programming with Respect to System Complexity and Programmer Expertise
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=4052584
Resources on Pairing (blog: nerdneha.tumblr.com)

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Further together: Curated Pairing Culture @Pivotal

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Further together: Curated Pairing Culture @Pivotal