People often assume pairing means pair programming, but pairing is much more general and powerful than just programming.  One of the best empirical research papers on this topic has to be Arlo Belshee’s “Promiscuous Pairing and Beginner’s Mind“.

The paper is short and well worth the read.  Follow the citations backwards and look forward to some follow up research by Mitch Lacey: “Adventures in Promiscuous Pairing: Seeking Beginner’s Mind“.

I’ve given talks on these papers numerous times.  Here is a video from September 2013 summarizing these and other research on this topic.  This is a webcast, so it’s a lot less dynamic than having a live audience.  At the time this set an attendance record with ~400 people joining from around the world.

This is another technique that, strictly speaking, isn’t so much about agility as good team collaboration.  In other words, this is probably applicable in your environment, whatever that may be.