Towards understanding communication structure in Pair Programming

authored by

Kai Stapel, Eric Knauss, Kurt Schneider, Matthias Becker

Abstract

Pair Programming has often been reported to be beneficial in software projects. To better understand where these benefits come from we evaluate the aspect of intra-pair communication. Under the assumption that the benefits stem from the information being exchanged, it is important to analyze the types of information being communicated. Based on the Goal Question Metric method we derive a set of relevant metrics and apply them in an eXtreme Programming class room project. Data covering a total of 22.9 hours of intra-pair communication was collected. We found that only 7% of the conversations were off-topic (e.g. private), 11% about requirements, 14% about design, and 68% about implementation details (e.g. syntax). Accordingly, a great share of the information being exchanged in Pair Programming is on a low level of abstraction. These results represent a first data point on what kind of information is communicated to what extent during Pair Programming.

Organisation(s)

Software Engineering Section
Human-Computer Interaction Section  

Type

Conference contribution

Pages

117-131

No. of pages

15

Publication date

2010

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Management Information Systems, Control and Systems Engineering, Business and International Management, Information Systems, Modelling and Simulation, Information Systems and Management

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13054-0_9 (Access: Closed)