Comment by skybrian

I don't think that's it. It's typical to have a team of programmers working on a large project, and many managers are willing to try things.

However, pair programming does require a lot of commitment to make it work. I've only seen it work on a team where it was an XP project to start with, so everyone hired was already willing to give it a solid try. Your average team isn't self-selected in this way and won't have the same level of enthusiasm for a new management initiative.