Evaluating Pair Programming with Respect to System Complexity and Programmer

Expertise

by Erik Arisholm, Hans Gallis, Tore Dybå and Dag I.K. Sjøberg

Presented by Tore Løvmo

• 1. Intro• 2. Conceptual Model and hypothesis• 3. Design of the Experiment• 4. Results• 5. Threats to validity• 6. Discussion• 7. Conclusions

1. Intro

– XP, 12 keys– Driver <-> Navigator– time effective

– Previous experiments:» Complexity» expertise

intro cont.

What is the effect regarding duration, effort and correctness of pair programming for various levels of system complexity and programmer expertise when performing change tasks?

2. Conceptual Model and hypothesis

concept cont.

3. Design of the experiment

fase 1: individuals 2001

fase 2: pairs 2004-2005

pretest task, determined their expertise

design cont.

» Individual training» Individual pretest» Main test - 4 tasks» Last task

design cont.

4. Results

Results cont.

Results cont.

Results cont.

5. Validity

Time difference? 3 years..

6. Discussion

• duration» decr. 39% favor PP» incr. 8% favor ind.

• Effort» 22 % incr. 115 % incr.» favor individual

• Correctness» 48% incr.

7. Conclusion

• System complexity and expertise » DO affect the usage of PP

• Juniors have more benefit