 Your Baby is Ugly.
You need to be able to tell
your pair partner the truth. Some of the best partners argue much of
the time. You loose many of the benefits of working together if you
feel like you can't say when something is bad. Make a deal to always be
honest even if
your partner has seniority or is a higher rank.
That Isn't What I Said.
What
you are saying isn't being
understood by your partner. Switch to a different
mode of explanation by taking over the keyboard or moving away from the
computer completely. Perhaps try some Agile modeling
for a short time.
Let's Try Your Idea First.
You have two perfectly
good ideas but you are arguing about which is better. Break the stale
mate by agreeing to try your partner's idea first.
None of the Above.
You are arguing about your
ideas and both of you are convinced you are right. Neither of you is
willing to
apply Let's Try Your Idea First. You can agree to throw away both ideas
and find a third idea that may end up being a hybrid or completely new.
Often the third idea is much better than either.
Brick to the Head.
Your partner is convinced he
knows something is true but you know it is false. Do not actually use a
brick, instead write the simplest experiment or prototype to get
your partner's thoughts unstuck.
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I Am Cutting You Off Now.
It is hard to abandon
something that has almost worked perfectly for the last hour. Just one
more small change it will work, then one more after that... One of you
must see the sense in throwing it away and starting
over fresh. Even if you can obviously fix it with just one more little
change.
No Backseat Driving.
The person at the keyboard
is allowed to make mistakes. Don't point out small errors until the
driver completes typing out his thoughts and pauses to look over what
has been typed. Even then you should wait a bit to see if the mistake
gets fixed. Keep your thoughts on the bigger picture and let the driver
worry over details.
Remember the Rules.
It is easy to get caught up
in writing code and forget the rules. One of you must keep your wits
about you and remind the other to follow the rules.
It Isn't a Race. If
you are wailing away on the
keyboard and text is jumping from
here to there and the whole time your partner is lost then you need to
slow
down. Try using the mouse more to help you slow down and keep your
partner in the loop.
Ping-Pong. If
you find one of the two of you stops paying attention split the
responsibilities by letting one programmer write the tests while the
other writes the code.
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