Joe the Developer waltzed into work one sunny Tuesday morning and was approached by Kenny the Project Manager, who asked if the feature Joe was working on was done.

Most of us know what it feels like: the team has inherited a legacy code base — defined here as a code base without automated tests—and is supposed to take it over and add new features. But how can we make sure our changes aren’t breaking anything?

Pair programming is a source of constant, unrelenting distractions — it’s impossible for me to get into a head-down coding binge with someone sitting right there talking to me all the time!