Pair Programming: The Choice of a Partner

Abstract

Pair Programming (PP) is a software development practice in which two programmers are working together on one computer, sharing mouse and keyboard [4]. Knowledge transfer is reported to be one of the benefits of PP. A crucial condition in order to achieve knowledge transfer among the whole development team is that developers must swap partners. However, not all developers want to work with everyone else. Begel and Nagappan [1] reported that “finding a compatible partner is a difficult process”. Therefore, we focus on the following question:

– Which factors influence the choice of a pair programming partner in industrial settings?

The current literature addressing this question is sparse. Begel et al [1], Choi [2] and Vanhanen et al [3] conducted surveys and identified PP problems, attributes of good pairing partners, for example flexibility and good communication, and factors that influence PP. These studies provide a good general overview of PP issues, but do not make a detailed analysis of the factors that influence the choice of partner. We used a different data gathering approach which enabled us to make such an analysis.