As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I have made the effort to get involved in some remote pair programming with excellent results. In fact, two of my new colleagues at HR SoftCo in the USA joined in the session. I used a headset and telephone and Jeff and Mike used a speakerphone. We used VNC to share my desktop.
During the session we all took turns at the keyboard with the other two advising. We were working on an C# Windows app that generates large volumes of test data. It was very noticeable how we were all three on the same wavelength in terms of program structure and flow within minutes of beginning.
Other team members use Sametime (an IM program) to communicate when pairing, but personally, I prefer to hear the voice of the other guy! I struggle with IM as a communication mechanism in general anyway. I find that there can be difficulty in communicating new concepts over this medium. As a case in point, I was involved in a three way Sametime IM conference later on in the day and it was a little more confused than the earlier phone conversation!
So, all in all, remote pair programming was a really good experience for me (and I hope for my colleagues also).
posted @ Monday, May 12, 2008 9:07 PM