Dion's latest reminded me of something that came up in the Agile Finland seminar last week.

While talking about pair programming and war rooms, someone in the audience mentioned how difficult it is to get into flow and how a war room makes it difficult to concentrate and get into flow. Personally, I don't find it at all difficult but I do recognize that people differ in this regard. Here's what I have to say about the effect of a war room and pair programming on flow:

First of all, how likely is it that you'll be interrupted by someone while pairing? When I have a question in mind that doesn't require an immediate resolution and I see that that someone is busy with someone else, I don't interrupt them. In other words, seeing someone collaborating with someone else makes me consider the relative importance of that activity much more often than if that someone would be "just" typing something into his IDE. Yet, if the question is urgent, am I not correct in interrupting a less urgent task?

Second, how likely is it that you'll start reading and responding to an email when pairing with someone? Again, in order for me to do such a thing, that email has to be pretty darn urgent. Better yet, I don't even have the annoying popup in my Outlook like some have so most of the time I might not even notice that someone has sent me an email until I take a break from whatever I'm doing.

Third, if your partner gets interrupted while pairing, it really does not take 15 minutes for him to get back into your flow. With "your", I'm referring to the two of you. It's a pair thing, you know.

Finally, if these interruptions really are a pain in the ass, do something about it. Don't just bitch and complain and blame it all on the war room or pairing. Fix it. You'd be surprised to see how many things you actually can affect in your immediate surroundings if you try. Think about why all those interruptions happen and whether you could do something to decrease them. Think about having periods of quiet time to create a rhythm for your team. Think about buying stuff. Think effectively.

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