In this talk, we will go through a practical approach for remote pair programming adopted for high-latency situations. We will demonstrate remote pair programming with a live example and we will discuss the advantages and usages of the approach.

1. Remote Pair
Programming
Agile 2013
Johannes Brodwall
Exilesoft Chief scientist
@jhannes

2. Can a distributed team
still Communicate
closely?

3. This talk is for you if
you…

4. Want to work with remote
colleagues

5. Want to practice pair
programming (more)

6. Want to see some TDD coding

7. Want to see some TDD coding
(And you’re not scared by coding)

8. After this talk
• Find a remote mentor
• Pair with your remote team
• Run a distributed workshop

9. 1. Why
2. How
3. Demonstration
4. Discussion:
Distributed agile

10. Why global teams

11. There are not enough devs here

12. There are not enough devs here
(for most values of “here”)

13. (There are not enough devs here)
But there are more “over there”

14. But

15. Communication cost increases
with distance

16. Luckily

17. Communication cost increases
with distance

18. Everybody knows that:
Communication cost increases
with distance

19. Which would you prefer:

20. Which would you prefer:
A. Team sits onsite, but…
uses headphones all day
speak to customer monthly

21. Which would you prefer:
A. Team sits onsite, but…
uses headphones all day
speak to customer monthly
B. Team 1/3 around the world
Pair programs with local devs
Speak with customer daily

22. Distribution change
communication

23. Huge email discussions

24. Large meetings

25. Small group discussions

26. Structured collaboration

27. Practical remote
programming

28. Don’t send each keystroke
across the world and back

29. We want a solution that is
not super-expensive

30. Voice sharing
Screen sharing
File sharing

31. Voice sharing (Skype)
Screen sharing (GoToMeeting)
File sharing (Dropbox)

32. Ping pong

33. Ingredient #1:
Pair programming

36. Ingredient #2:
Test driven
development

37. Failing test
Write code
Failing test
Write code
Failing test

38. Ingredient #3:
Refactoring

39. Failing test
Write code
Failing test
Write code
Failing test
Refactor code
and tests
Refactor code
and tests

40. Put together

41. Failing test
Write code
Failing test
Write code
Failing test

42. Failing test
Write code
Failing test
Write code
Failing test
Refactor code
and tests
Refactor code
and tests

43. Failing test
Write code
Failing test
Write code
Failing test
Refactor code
and tests
Refactor code
and tests

44. Demonstration

45. What to watch for?

46. What to watch for?
• Collaboration
• Problems and approaches

47. Say hello to my team!

48. Remember: Suboptimal
network

49. Please:
• Talk about what you see to the person
next to you (whisper)
•Tweet to @jhannes

50. Demonstration
(Guest starring Niruka
Ruhunage)

51. Kata: Bank OCR

52. Kata: Bank OCR
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
|_||_||_||_||_||_||_||_||_|
|_||_||_||_||_||_||_||_||_|
=> 888888888 AMB [888886888, 888888988, 888888880]

53. Discussion

54. Benefits
(Guest starring Niruka
Ruhunage)

55. Domain knowledge
Also involving the quiet
ones
Grow technically

56. What did you see?

57. Dealing with time-lag

58. Helping each other

59. Communicating ideas

60. Usage

61. Dev extension
Training
Job interviews

62. Dev extension

65. Training
• You just saw it…

66. Interviews
• Reveals real skills
• Motivating: fun and educational
=> Good PR
• Pre-start training

67. Distributed
workshops

68. First week

69. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Goal,
Stakeholders
Dev baseline Dev baseline
Review usage
Define
progress,
Stories
Wrap up docs
Dev baseline
Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch
Look at what’s
going on today
Stakeholder,
Usage
Usage review,
Context,
Domain,
Deployment
Refine
models
Review,
Retrospective

73. 1. Teams of 3 (distributed)
2. Create goal statements –
10 minutes
3. Consensus goal

74. For some stakeholder
Who has a goal
The system/activity/increment
Is a type of system/activity
Which gives a capability/feature.
Unlike most relevant alternative
This has a distinguishing advantage.

75. For a busy sales officer
Who wants to find good prospects to contact
when in a city
The CRM customer radar
Is a mobile map application
Which displays nearby customers on a map.
Unlike searching for prospects in CRM portal
This provides the information at a glance.

76. What do we get
from this?

77. Small groups
Clear task
Cross boundaries

78. Distributed
retrospective

79. Example agenda

80. 1. Defining word
2. Groups discussion: achievements
and challenges
3. Whole team discuss where are we
4. Round the table suggest actions
5. Hopes for the future

81. Lessons

82. Small groups
Clear task
Eye contact doesn’t work

83. Decreasing the
distance

84. How do you decrease
the distance in your
team?

85. Conclusions

86. More distribution =>
more structured communication

87. Dropbox, Skype, GoToMeeting

88. It’s a small world, after all

89. Find a remote pair prog partner

90. Find a remote pair prog partner
Have fun

91. Grab hold of me in the hallway
for a pair programming session

92. jbr@exilesoft.com
nru@exilesoft.com
http://johannesbrodwall.com
http://exilesoft.com
http://twitter.com/jhannes
Thank you