Today was my second day pairing with Zack. As predicted yesterday, I did get more keyboard time. If there is one lesson that I have learned today, it is that JavaScript is omnipresent, and I have to get better at it.

I will start with an observation that I also made while working with Malcolm, which is that I am still surprised at how much non-coding time is spent during the day. Zack ran a standard 8 hour shift, and between meetings and conference calls, we only spent a little more than half of that time actually in front of a computer. Of that time, a decent chunk was spent either in communication with project management or members of the team, or switching between code reviewing and project management screens. I realize that all of these secondary and tertiary tasks are still billable, but regardless, it is quite a large portion of the day not actually spent developing.

We started in the morning with a new story that involved allowing people who are using the application to fill out a needs request (basically an insurance reimbursement claim), to add a second callback preference. There was, already existing, a contact page which allowed the user to select which method of contact was best to reach them, and if they opted to be reached by telephone, they were given choices to select the day of the week, along with the time, morning or afternoon, that they would like to be contacted about the claim. We had to add those same options a second time on the page for their second preference. The code was basically already there, however we had to handle “availability” as a hash of information, rather than as single day and time attributes.

The little bit of coding I did was easy enough, however there were some things about CoffeeScript, PubSub, and Backbone for which I just did not posess the knowledge. I have a feeling things like that are going to come up a lot. What I should probably know better by now, as I mentioned earlier, is JavaScript, so I did deservedly hear about that today.

JavaScript is a weird thing for me because I have never needed to use it. Everything I have built here at 8th Light has used a terminal user interface. I have no doubt I could pick it up rather easily, however right now I just don’t have any practical experience under my belt. Again, this pairing thing is not my favorite model of work, because with my pace of thinking I would definitely feel more comfortable if left to figure things out and build my knowledge base solo, but I do understand the benefit to having a second brain attacking the problem.

One thing I noticed myself doing a lot while pairing was thinking about the business applications for the project. Probably a lot of the questions that Zack fielded were about why certain decisions were made, why some things were designed like they were. The general answer, it seems, is that those decisions are made at a different level, so the developer does not really have many decisions to make other than how to make something work. Even the design is handled by a completely different individual, so they don’t have to put things in containers, prep for styling or anything.

This brings me back to my interview 9 months ago when Mike J asked me where I saw myself in 5 years. I told him I was really interested in making business and planning decisions, and that I saw myself in a position to be able to lead teams and communicate effectively with stakeholders if necessary. I have never considered myself the best coder, I have a lot to learn, and I think that part of the reason I was able to come into this company is because I like doing sales and I like the meetings to an extent, and I like that there is potentially more to this job than sitting behind a computer all day doing what other people are telling me to.

Tomorrow I am pairing with Kevin B on an insurance application using similar technologies to what I have been using over the last couple of days with Zack. Hopefully now with that refresher, I will be less nervous about my pairs to come.