We also do pair programming at Mavenlink, but I’m curious about the advocacy to skip code review. We maintain a fairly robust code review process that leverages Github’s Review feature on PRs as a required sign-off step. Our process requires code review by someone who was not heavily involved in the code’s implementation, and usually from someone outside the team the code was developed on.

We have found this to be valuable since it can address gaps in expertise that may exist on a given team, and especially within a given pair. We also use it as a means to check issues that might arise from work being done on other teams, or larger scale concerns that may have bearing on the feature being developed.

How do you address those kinds of concerns without formalizing code review practices? I wonder if team structure and pairing rotations may be the significant differentiator, but maybe there’s more detail you could provide.