How Pair Programming Reduces Distraction

Pair programming is not for everyone. Some people love it, some people hate it. It almost seems there is nothing in the middle.

I'm more in the camp of people preferring pair programming. For many different reasons but I keep the discussion for a different post.

In this one I'd like to describe an example for what happened to me yesterday. I was working with one or my fellow software engineers, Jason, and while we were looking through a nasty C++ link problem we discovered a small item in an adjacent code area that we felt should be cleaned up. So I took a card and wrote it down as a story and returned back to the problem at hand.

Jason was surprised and made comment saying that by taking a note we would actually avoid being distracted. Although I have worked like that for years my colleague is newer to pair programming and that was probably the reason why he noticed what I did. For me it was just normal mode of operation. I did it unconsciously.

Based on my colleagues observation I think there is a lesson to be learned: First there is the specific case. When you come across something that should be done then just take a note (create a 'story' card). Don't let yourself get distracted. That way there is only a small interruption and then you are back on the problem at hand. Secondly, don't assume that the way you work is normal in the sense that everybody knows all the techniques you are using. It pays off to make yourself aware of this and sometimes it takes a good observer like Jason making a comment to become aware of what you are actually doing. So keep your ears open!