The Bus Factor
The Bus Factor
Years ago a boss of mine once commented on what would happen to the project if I was run over by a bus.
Thinking about it I then decided to take it as a compliment. Apparently he was suggesting that I had sufficient importance on the project that if I was to “kick the bucket” in a horrible public transport accident, the project would be in trouble.
Apparently there is even a wiki on this kind of thing, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor.
Of course other situations could occur which would have similar consequences for example, having a baby, getting a new job, winning the lottery.
Well one of those could happen, the other two are as likely as a Michael Jackson comeback Tour.
To be honest I feel that there is nothing a developer can write that cant be debugged by a similarly qualified developer and the concept of the Bus Factor is a little over exaggerated.
But of course, we all document our code anyway! 
Pair Programming
One of the great things about Agile development is the concept of pair programming.
Every so often this is made glaringly apparent to me when I sit looking at some code with a blank expression on my face and time slips away.
Sometimes you can be hypnotised by code and your brain goes round and round in circles.
So, thinking like an Agile developer, I call over a friend to look over the code with me. As I sit and explain the problem, as if by magic, the answer begins to crystalise before me. And my friend has done almost nothing!
The simple process of explaining and discussing a problem with someone often brings about the solution.
Within 10 minutes, my code problem of two days was solved with a couple of lines of code and an exception handler!
I just wish I could have those two days of my life back!!!
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