Why Katas

The Merriam-Webster dictionary provides the following definition for kata Kata a set combination of positions and movements (as in karate) performed as an exercise Most people are probably familiar with katas as they are used in martial arts (come on, admit it, you liked the Karate Kid).  My introduction to katas in software was through [...]

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Startup Lessons Learned Conference

Yesterday was the Startup Lessons Learned Conference in San Francisco.  Although I heard it was a beautiful day in SF, I enjoyed the conference from Cambridge, compliments of the Lean Startup Circle – Boston.  It was a great day, met a lot of interesting people in Cambridge, and heard a lot of interesting folks via [...]

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Convincing Developers on the Value of Pair Programming

Something that often comes up when discussing the topic of pair programming is the notion of convincing management of its value. Am I paying twice as much to have two developers to work on a task instead of just one? My experience with convincing management of the value of agile and XP methods has been [...]

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Pair Programming Follow-Up

In my last post I described some of my early impressions on my first pair programming experience. Still no complaints, although a few additional observations. I am surprised at the end of the day to find that I am a little mentally drained and I think that is a good thing. The effort that we [...]

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Pair Programming

I’ve been doing some pair programming this week and have found the experience to be extremely productive and informative. I am pairing with a guy named Mike, who is someone I have worked with in the past and really enjoying working with. We are in the midst of a fairly significant refactoring effort for a [...]

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