I know pair programming is an agile software development technique in which two programmers work together at one workstation. One, the driver, writes code while the other, the observer, reviews each line of code as it is typed in.
But I just wonder the strategy still work in the case. For example
- if they have a very different programming skill level.
- if one never experience in the problem domain while another have.
- Is it still OK if they have low programming skill level?
Could you suggest the pair programming strategy in the case above?
Best Answer
Assuming that the more experienced person in the pair has the temperament to mentor the other person, pairing someone with little experience in the language or the problem domain with an experienced person would facilitate knowledge transfer. The less experienced person would have a mentor to instruct them on the language, the domain, the application, and the best practices or conventions of the team.
There's an interesting summary on C2 wiki about knowledge transfer using pair programming. The more senior person, who was brought on to serve as the team mentor, learned a lot from the junior programmers and his knowledge even increased as a result of being paired with more junior, less experienced software developers. There are some other stories about expert programmers being pair with domain experts, as well.