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by Joe Shelby.
Original Post: Someone notes a potential flaw in Pair Programming...
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Erb Cooper: [Pair Programming] makes the fatal error of ignoring Murphy. Two people working together might spot each other's mistakes, but they might also buy into a shared illusion -- the illusion that they are right.
Heh heh...I've been in that situation before. Its like Cringely's observations on Donald Knuth. One can get so confident about the accuracy and brilliance and simplicity of the design that one can completely ignore flaws
It certainly is possible (though less likely than one person on their own)
Mitigating factors are: Pairs seem to have less ego than solos, they will probably be more likely to question their assumptions.
Others in the team will work on the code too, probably very soon.
So it is more the case that if the whole team buys into the shared illusion there will be a problem (and this is worse than a non-pairing team because...?)
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