Distributed Pair Programming: An Empirical Study

Pair programming provides many benefits, both to the programmers and to the product that they develop. However, pair programming is limited to those situations in which the developers can collocate, preventing its benefits from being enjoyed by the widest possible audience. A software tool that allowed the pair to work from separate locations would address this limitation. This paper presents some initial results from a distributed pair programming experiment in which students in an introductory programming class used such a tool. Student perceptions of distributed pair programming are also discussed.

[1]  Charles E. McDowell,et al.  The impact of pair programming on student performance, perception and persistence , 2003, 25th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2003. Proceedings..

[2]  Till Schümmer,et al.  Support for distributed teams in extreme programming , 2001 .

[3]  Charles E. McDowell,et al.  Program quality with pair programming in CS1 , 2004, ITiCSE '04.

[4]  Carl Gutwin,et al.  Semantic telepointers for groupware , 1996, Proceedings Sixth Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction.

[5]  Charles E. McDowell,et al.  Experimenting with pair programming in the classroom , 2003, ITiCSE.

[6]  Laurie Williams,et al.  The costs and benefits of pair programming , 2001 .

[7]  Giancarlo Succi,et al.  Extreme Programming Examined , 2001 .

[8]  John T. Nosek,et al.  The case for collaborative programming , 1998, CACM.

[9]  P. David Stotts,et al.  Virtual Teaming: Experiments and Experiences with Distributed Pair Programming , 2003, XP/Agile Universe.

[10]  Elena Rocco,et al.  Trust breaks down in electronic contexts but can be repaired by some initial face-to-face contact , 1998, CHI.

[11]  Andy Hopper,et al.  Virtual Network Computing , 1998, IEEE Internet Comput..

[12]  Pamela J. Hinds,et al.  Distributed Work , 2002 .

[13]  P. David Stotts,et al.  Exploring the Efficacy of Distributed Pair Programming , 2002, XP/Agile Universe.

[14]  Frank Maurer.  Supporting Distributed Extreme Programming , 2002, XP/Agile Universe.

[15]  Laurie Williams,et al.  Extreme Programming and Agile Methods — XP/Agile Universe 2002 , 2002, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[16]  Pamela J. Hinds,et al.  The (Currently) Unique Advantages of Collocated Work , 2002 .

[17]  Saul Greenberg.  Sharing views and interactions with single-user applications , 1990 .

[18]  Frank Maurer,et al.  Extreme Programming and Agile Methods - XP/Agile Universe 2003 , 2003, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[19]  Aniello Cimitile,et al.  Lessons learned about distributed pair programming: what are the knowledge needs to address? , 2003, WET ICE 2003. Proceedings. Twelfth IEEE International Workshops on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises, 2003..

[20]  Laurie A. Williams,et al.  Strengthening the Case for Pair Programming , 2000, IEEE Softw..

[21]  Laurie A. Williams,et al.  Pair Programming Illuminated , 2002 .

[22]  Mark Pendergast,et al.  Gesturing through cursors: implementing multiple pointers in group support systems , 1993, [1993] Proceedings of the Twenty-sixth Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.