Effective Distributed Pair Programming

Pair Programming has quickly become a widespread technique for teams adopting Agile. The interest has gained even more popularity for those implementing Extreme Programming (XP) which is a well-known Agile methodology. There is a general agreement that pair programming works well with a pair of developers working side by side. However, that is not always possible. Distributed teams and distributed team members are becoming the norm. With that said, is distributed pair programming possible? And if so, can it be done effectively? This paper examines a project where distributed pair programming was extremely effective. Contrary to agile dogma, some individuals may perform better in a distributed manner over collocated.