Table of Links

Abstract and I. Introduction

II. Related Work

A. On the Existence of Pair Programming Skill

B. On the Elements of Pair Programming Skill

III. Research Method

A. Research Goal and Data Collection

B. Qualitative Research Approach

C. Our Notions of ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’

IV. Results

A. Two Elements of Pair Programming Skill

B. Anti-Pattern: Getting Lost in the Weeds

C. Anti-Pattern: Losing the Partner

D. Anti-Pattern: Drowning the Partner

E. Doing the Right Thing and F. Further Elements of Pair Programming Skill

V. Discussion

VI. Summary and Future Work

VII. Data Availability and References

V. DISCUSSION

Previous research and practitioner reports suggest that getting accustomed to working in pairs and getting familiar with a particular partner takes time. However, exhibited PP skill does not appear to directly depend on experience: We saw developers with no PP experience skillfully avoid Losing or Drowning their partner, e.g., D4 probing his partner’s knowledge gaps in the latter half of session DA2 (which was D4’s very first PP session ever), such as in Example 5; and we saw problematic behavior in developers with long PP histories, e.g., C2 (6 years of PP) Losing his Partner in session CA1, or P1 (2 years of PP) Drowning his Partner in session PA3, see Examples 2 and 3.

This leads to open questions: How do PP novices manage to have good PP sessions? Which elements of PP skill can be acquired through what types of experience? Which are specific to the context and the involved partners?