There are many articles written about pair programming. I wanted to write something specific about pair programming between a fresher and experienced programer.
Lets look at some benefits of pairing a fresher with a experienced developer.
Benefits:
- The fresher gets a good a mentor whom he can ask questions and clarify doubts.
- Learn from experienced developer. Learn concepts in minutes which might take years if left alone.
Problems:
- Fresher can slow down experienced developer, so productivity may go down.
- Experienced dev might get frustrated explaining everything to fresher.
- Fresher might be intimated so would not question experience developer's decisions.
- Fresher might feel discouraged as they don't know many things compare to experienced developers.
- Fresher might not get sense of accomplishments as they feel they finished a task because they paired with some experienced developers.
Now we have a good set of problems. Lets see what we can do it avoid these problems.
Solutions:
- Give freshers some tasks that they can do by themselves so they will get a sense of accomplishments.
- Experienced developers can clearly tell freshers where they need to concentrate, like ask them to read a particular technology or practice.
- Create a safe environment where freshers won't hold themselves from questioning experienced developers' decisions.
- Create a culture where people seek feedback.
- Always make sure freshers what is expected out of them that way they can be ready.
- Have One on ones regularly with freshers and experienced developers to get sense how things are going.
- Talk with experienced developers to find how freshers are doing. Ask them what they suggest we can do to improve a productivity.
No comments:
Post a Comment