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Yo my ex-Pivots (and at this point this includes everyone still working at VMware) what cool post-Pivotal future-of-XP stuff are you up to?
I'll start:
My team ran an experiment where none of us paired for 3 weeks & we learned a TON
I'll start:
My team ran an experiment where none of us paired for 3 weeks & we learned a TON
I probably learned more about Process that week than in the last 3 years
I'm not ready to write a ton about it yet, the "synthesis" part of the experiment got cut short my yet-another-reorg but I do have a couple of nuggets
I'm not ready to write a ton about it yet, the "synthesis" part of the experiment got cut short my yet-another-reorg but I do have a couple of nuggets
(1) Running a deliberately too-radical experiment was really fun and rewarding. We had been talking a lot about how we use "experiments" to jam incremental change through and that makes people wary of "experiments" so we thought, we should try something we know we'll roll back.
Suddenly we were using our retro to make changes and solve problems and grapple with this wild environment we'd put ourselves into.
And in a year that's had so much change it was *really* satisfying to be taking control of some of that change.
And in a year that's had so much change it was *really* satisfying to be taking control of some of that change.
(2) Pairing is
So
Exhausting
Towards the end of it I realized I was having tons of Ideas and doing lots of personal-life stuff I hadn't had the energy for in a while and, honestly, that's because I wasn't sinking so much energy into Being Present
So
Exhausting
Towards the end of it I realized I was having tons of Ideas and doing lots of personal-life stuff I hadn't had the energy for in a while and, honestly, that's because I wasn't sinking so much energy into Being Present
The acquisition and the pandemic together have given me a deep appreciation for how much invisible work and support is required to make pairing as much as Pivotal did possible.
Without the office (and office management staff) or a good substitute it's just not reasonable.
Without the office (and office management staff) or a good substitute it's just not reasonable.
(And honestly, even with the office, it was juuuust on the edge of do-able for many of us. Worth it, but, like, it's called "extreme" programming for a reason, it's a demanding set of practices.)
I remain optimistic that there is a new-equilibrium available in the post-pandemic, remote-by-default world, but it's going to take time and work to discover. (Hence the request at the top of the thread, hint hint.)
(3) Different people are more productive when pairing on different kinds of work
Like, I'm more comfortable doing highly exploratory work solo and then pairing on execution work. I need time to chew and think when exploring, and I need someone to vet my ideas when executing.
Like, I'm more comfortable doing highly exploratory work solo and then pairing on execution work. I need time to chew and think when exploring, and I need someone to vet my ideas when executing.
Other people on my team were exactly the opposite. They needed someone to help keep them on task while exploring, but they really enjoy soloing and being Maximally Productive on TDD-ing code
(4) Soloing is a lot better/easier when you actually do what we call "Poloing" -- paired soloing. We assigned people a pair anyway, so you always had someone who was your default question answering/feedback giver/"hey can you take a look at this for a sec" person