Too Many Cooks: are rotating pairs a blessing or a curse?
A common agile practise is rotating pairs - developers pair on features and swap partners once a day, twice a day, or even once an hour. Ideally, in a short period each team member will have worked on nearly every story being developed.
How well does this work in practise? Does it:
-ensure skills and technical knowledge transfer;
-educate all developers on various features; and
-produce quality code and a robust feature?
Or do the swapping pairs:
- lack accountability and responsibility;
- constantly argue over best practise;
- get de-motivated and fail to complete features; and
- make estimation hard or impossible?
I'd like to discuss with others whether this practise is good and the benefits and setbacks they have encountered with this approach. |
